Credlin: Why Labor trading visas for votes should disqualify this government from re-election
For Labor to contemplate giving thousands of permanent visas to people from Gaza looks shamefully akin to visas for votes, disqualifying the government from re-election, writes Peta Credlin.
Opinion
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If Gaza’s Muslim neighbours – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and more – refuse to take any people out of the terrorist controlled war zone because they’re worried about what radical Islamists might do in their own countries, why on earth is Australia bringing thousands of them here?
And it’s not just regional neighbours who share Dutton’s concern about importing violent extremism due to the absence of robust security checks. The US and UK have refused to let in any Gazans since October 7.
It’s a simple fact that, under the rule of Hamas, a listed terrorist body in this and many other countries, Gazans are schooled from birth to think that Jews deserve to die and that the Western world is evil. They are totally immersed in the Islamist extremism that, in this country, only emanates from a small number of western Sydney mosques.
To the extent that the attitudes of Gazans can be gauged, recent polls report large majorities think that Hamas should rule Gaza and that the October 7 atrocities were justified. Remember, this involved the butchery of more than 1200 Israelis and the brutal abduction of 200 more, a massacre that its perpetrators revelled in. As did quite a few hate preachers here in Australia, long before Israel fired its first shot in retaliation.
These days, in the absence of a strong case, the best way to sway an argument or to intimidate opponents is to accuse them of racism. That’s what happened to so many of us who opposed the Voice even though we were the ones refusing to divide our Constitution along racial lines.
It’s becoming harder and harder in this country to speak up but, thank God, we have someone like Peter Dutton who hasn’t let false claims of racism distract him from defending Australia.
To date, the Albanese government has issued 3000 visas to people from Gaza and reportedly wants to hand out thousands more, even though it knows that almost no Gazan coming to Australia will ever go back – and 400 of the 1500 already here have since applied for permanent protection (refugee) visas, on a pathway to citizenship.
As immigration officials recently admitted, some of the Gaza visas were issued in under 24 hours. You can’t get a driver’s licence in this country in 24 hours, yet we’re giving people the right to come here in that time? Remember the delays when we took people out of Afghanistan that had worked with our soldiers after the war ended? For some of them, due to exhaustive security checks, it took a year to get processed even though they had risked their lives alongside our military.
The Coalition government, and Peter Dutton as minister at the time, insisted we had to do proper checks to ensure we didn’t let a Taliban extremist slip in.
But that caution has now been junked by the Albanese government. The security experts I have spoken to confirm that we don’t really know who these people are.
We can check the name they give us through a database but are terrorist supporters going to give us their real names or supply authorities with genuine papers? We don’t check biometrics (fingerprints, etc), there is no in-person interview, and the first time we see them face-to-face is when they land here and then disappear into the Muslim-dominated suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne.
For Labor, what’s driving this reckless policy is not compassion, however misguided it might be, but electoral concerns.
New Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s seat of Watson is 25 per cent Muslim and he’s being challenged by a local Muslim doctor. For Burke and Labor to be contemplating giving thousands of permanent visas to people from Gaza looks shamefully akin to visas for votes.
With the polls on a knife-edge, the Prime Minister’s own personal ratings in trouble, and fears of more economic pain to come for those already doing it tough, Labor is desperate. But putting at risk our national security is reprehensible. Trading visas for political gain should disqualify this government from ever being re-elected.
FACTIONAL STRANGLEHOLD ON STATE LIBS REQUIRES FEDERAL FIX
The change of government that Australia needs could be put at risk by the catastrophic ineptitude of the NSW Liberal Party.
A political party that’s incapable of lodging its local government nominations on time is in no fit shape to fight the federal election due by May. Yet the instant dismissal of the Liberal’s NSW state director looks more like a factional power play than a bid to restore competent management.
To get the numbers to win the recent NSW party presidency, former state minister (and factional player) Don Harwin did a series of deals over local government preselections.
Juggling these deals meant that preselections weren’t finalised until two hours before nominations closed last week with the electoral commission. And two hours wasn’t enough time to get the paperwork in for dozens of the Liberal Party’s 440 endorsed candidates.
Hence numerous sitting councillors will shortly be out of office and at least some of them are said to be thinking of suing the party for loss of income; as is the now ex-state director, Richard Shields, for unlawful dismissal.
And in places like Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Lane Cove, the Shoalhaven and Wollongong, there will be no Liberal candidates for people to vote for and, quite possibly, little opposition to Labor-Greens control.
It’s a devastating blunder that’s got to be heartbreaking for the thousands of ordinary party members who volunteer week in and week out. Harwin and his allies are trying to make it all the fault of Shields but that’s a smokescreen to preserve the so-called moderate faction’s long-term dominance (and manipulation) of the NSW party.
This includes: delaying preselections to make a rank-and-file ballots impossible; using emergency powers to create, close down or move branches depending on their factional allegiance; and allowing branches to refuse to admit new members if it might disturb local factional alignments.
Because of the factional stranglehold, the NSW Liberals are beyond reforming themselves.
In 2010, they cost Tony Abbott the election because of late and botched preselections. If he had won just one more seat, there would not have been a Gillard hung parliament.
Under the Liberal Party’s federal constitution, there can be federal intervention in a state division in circumstances which “seriously prejudice the ability of the party to contest and win a federal election”.
If Peter Dutton wants to win, and avoid what happened to Abbott, it’s time to use this power.
Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm
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