Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Chandler. Well, the benefit of Senate question time happening after the House of Reps question time is that we can refer back to the answers that House ministers provided to exactly the same questions that were asked four hours and about 19 minutes ago. Minister Burke was asked this question, and the guarantee that I can provide is exactly the same guarantee that Mr Dutton could have provided when he was the home affairs minister and allowed for hundreds of people to enter Australia on visitor visas from war zones such as Afghanistan.

When Mr Dutton was the Minister for Home Affairs, he granted 991 visitor visas to people from Afghanistan while it was a war zone, so I guess I can provide the same guarantee that Mr Dutton could provide then. When Mr Dutton was the home affairs minister, 4,994 visitor visas were granted to people from Iraq while it was a war zone, so I'll give you the same guarantee as Mr Dutton could do then. And 1,505 visitor visas were granted to people from Syria while Mr Dutton was the minister as well, so we're happy to provide the same guarantee as Mr Dutton. (Time expired)