Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister guarantee his government has not granted a visa to any individual from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone who has links to a listed terrorist organisation?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I said earlier, in terms of terrorist organisations, that I didn't want to add to the words of Mike Burgess or vary them. I've got the quote, so I'll read it directly: 'If you think terrorism is okay, if you think the destruction of the state of Israel is okay, if you think Hamas and what they did on 7 October is okay, I can tell you: that is not okay, and, from an ASIO security assessment point of view, you will not pass muster.' That is the test. That is the security test that's provided.

Now, the member asks what guarantee can be provided. I'll tell you: the guarantee is the guarantee of our security agencies being responsible and a government that has confidence in them—which, I might say, is the same guarantee the Leader of the Opposition would have provided with respect to 1,991 people coming from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. It's the same guarantee—

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

Order. The leader will pause. The member for Wannon on a point of order.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks, Speaker. On relevance: how can this individual be here, then, given that advice from—

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

Resume your seat. It's a point of relevance made; it's not an opportunity to ask an additional question or a reframe of the question. The Leader of the House, in continuation.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So the guarantee that this government gives and the guarantee of confidence in our security agencies is the same guarantee the Leader of the Opposition would have given when he let in, on visitor visas, 4,994 people from an Iraq controlled by Islamic State, described by the people who then stood here as a 'death cult'. It is the same guarantee that the Leader of the Opposition would have given, when he held my job, about 1,505 people he let in from Syria on visitor visas and the same guarantee the Leader of the Opposition would have given with respect to 864 people who came here from the Palestinian territories.

If you want to be on this side of the chamber and you don't have confidence in our security agencies, say so, because this government has confidence in our security agencies, and those opposite are now wanting to demand a whole lot of examples on which, tested against their record, they would fail dismally, every single time.