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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, does supporting Hamas pass the character test for an Australian visa?

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

I thank the member for Berowra for his question. Everyone who applies for an Australian visa is subject to the same security standard set by the same agencies and the same personnel as under the former government. Our intelligence agencies make those decisions. Our intelligence agencies have the confidence of this side of the House, and so does Mike Burgess, who has made it very clear that if you have violent extremism as an ideology then you certainly have a problem with an ASIO assessment. ASIO make these national security assessments. They're not made on a partisan basis or a political basis. ASIO do this work and they do it as well on an ongoing basis, which is relevant to previous questions that have been asked over the last couple of weeks.

Our national security is too important to be used as a political football. Our national security is something that historically in this place has been above the sort of game-playing and targeting that we have seen here. The targeting of any group based upon hate is a bad thing. Whether that's people of Jewish faith, people of Islamic faith or people of whatever colour or creed, it is a bad thing, and we see the consequences of hate in too many places in the world at the moment. What I want to do in this great multicultural nation is provide—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has concluded his answer.