Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today it was reported that, before approving visas for people coming from the terrorist controlled Gaza war zone, Canada requires applicants to submit to face-to-face interviews and biometric testing in a third country—Egypt. Why didn't the government have a similar arrangement in place before granting more than 2,900 tourist visas?

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

I thank the member for his question. I note, as I said yesterday, that under the former government, of which he was a member but not a minister, there were over a thousand tourist visas granted to people from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Leader of the Opposition's response to that, of course, is that that was before October 7, but the member for Berowra knows full well that Hamas didn't become terrorists on October 7. They have had a terrorist ideology for a long period of time and indeed have been in charge of Gaza since 2006, when they received less than half of the vote from the people of Gaza in that election, and they haven't had one since. They are enemies not only of the people of Israel; they are enemies of the Palestinian people because Hamas do not respect the human rights of Palestinian people. After they seized control there, they engaged in violence against their own people in Gaza in order to secure their position. They've continued to do that.

I did see a report today from Plestia Alaqad, who spoke about her own personal journey, and I know that the member for Berowra does respect human rights and people and has a record of it. Plestia Alaqad went on to say this in her article today:

Every person who fled Gaza after October underwent rigorous checks by both Israeli and Egyptian authorities. The idea that those who have successfully passed these screenings and arrived in Australia still pose a threat is unfounded and perpetuates harmful stereotypes, alienating those of us that made it to safety here …

The member for Berowra knows, as do other members of this chamber, the danger in stereotyping and targeting people because of their race or their faith. People know that people from Gaza, or the West Bank, for that matter, are certainly not automatically Hamas supporters and shouldn't be seen as being so.