Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Processing a visa application while somebody is offshore in a third country like Jordan means a person of concern can be stopped before getting to Australia. The last government used this process when bringing people in from Syria. The Prime Minister says the process for granting 2,900 tourist visas to those coming from the terrorist controlled Gaza zone follows the same process. Can the Prime Minister advise which third-party country these people were sent to for screening before they came to Australia?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No matter where a person comes from or what visa they hold, our security agencies are involved in the process. We trust their expertise. We take the same advice from the same security agencies, even the same security personnel, as the previous government. In this case, we've rejected more than 7,000 visa applications; fewer than 1,300 people are here.

I remind the Leader of the Opposition that the Rafah border crossing is controlled by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities. Let's be clear about what is happening here: Israel closed the Rafah border crossing in May. They're not letting people out. Three months later, the Leader of the Opposition decided to call for a ban on Gazans coming to Australia even though no-one is.