Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government has punched a hole into Australia's border security. They've ignored vital security checks and issued thousands of tourist visas to people from a war zone controlled by Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation. This troubles me and many Australians. To be clear, most Palestinians living in Gaza are people of decent character and they have no choice about where they are born or where they raise their families. But there may be some among them who support Hamas and its use of violence, and they shouldn't be allowed to come to Australia—no exceptions.

The coalition therefore has called for a pause on all Gazan refugees entering Australia. We have asked the Prime Minister to give a straight answer about the process for issuing almost 3,000 tourist visas to people from Gaza. The Australian people deserve assurance that the Prime Minister has done proper identity and security vetting of these people because Australians shouldn't have to absorb that risk themselves into their own communities. The opposition leader has been a lone voice on this. Labor, the Greens and the Teals have maliciously tried to smear him with accusations of racism, but this is just a lazy and nasty way of silencing legitimate debate and questions about an important issue. Thankfully, he is big enough to take the abuse. We're big enough to take the abuse. We're happy to ask the tough questions of this government because our priority always is to keep the Australian people safe.