Coalition wants powerful security committee to probe terrorism definitions in visa debate

The Coalition wants a high-powered probe of whether sympathising with terrorists should be grounds for blocking visas, as it escalates a rare dispute with the nation’s spy chief over the screening of Palestinian refugees.

In a heated day in Canberra that followed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s divisive call for a total ban on migration from Gaza, the opposition bombarded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with questions about checks done on the 2922 Palestinians given visas since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and accused him of misquoting ASIO boss Mike Burgess by overstating the agency’s role in vetting people.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton trades barbs with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in question time on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Labor rejected the attack and turned the tables on Dutton, alleging he had a long history of “sowing division” on immigration including the time the opposition leader said Melburnians were scared to go out because of African youth gangs.

The visa dispute was sparked by weekend comments from Burgess that suggested rhetorical support for Hamas would not, on its own, be enough to block a visa.

Liberal MP Andrew Wallace, deputy chair of the security and intelligence committee that oversees ASIO, said Burgess’ comments were “extraordinary”.

Wallace told this masthead he wanted the committee – the most influential parliamentary committee, whose recommendations usually lead to new laws – to investigate the definition of what constituted “support” for a terror group, and whether this should capture sympathies rather than just financial backing.

“Mike Burgess made the extraordinary admission that not all visa applications are coming before ASIO for security checks,” he said.

“This is not a criticism of Mr Burgess or the hardworking members of ASIO. Rather it is a criticism of the Labor government that it does not have the policies and processes in place to ensure that every visa application that is made by anyone coming from a troubled hotspot such as Gaza, are subject to appropriate security checks before entering Australia.”

Wallace’s statement amplifies the split between Burgess and Coalition MPs who would usually support the security chief but this week questioned his judgment.

Burgess last weekend said: “For all immigration, including when you’re balancing humanitarian needs, security checks are critically important. There are processes in place and I can assure ... that when things get referred to ASIO we deal with them effectively.

“If they’ve been issued a visa they’ve gone through the process. Part of the process is, where criteria are hit, they’re referred to my organisation and ASIO does its thing.”

Labor insists the government and ASIO were following the same processes used by the former Coalition government and accused the opposition of undermining national security agencies.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke has said it had been difficult to interview all Gazan applicants in person as they fled the war zone, but that security checks had not changed and every visa was checked against ASIO’s information.

Questions over the visa status of those fleeing Gaza were spawned by this masthead’s report that Labor was close to announcing a more permanent visa for the 1300 Gazans who had arrived since October 7. Many are now on bridging visas as they await the new scheme, which appears to have been delayed.

Albanese made a rare personal attack on Dutton’s record of remarks about migrants to Australia.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese on Thursday repeated his confidence in “our security and law enforcement agencies to do their job” but later turned his attention to Dutton, who he accused of having “20 years of form” in making divisive remarks about migrants.

“The criticism of Malcolm Fraser for making what was called a ‘mistake’ of bringing Lebanese refugees to Australia in response to the 1976 civil war,” he said.

“The claim that Victorians were scared to go out due to African gang violence, and the incorrect blaming of the death of a teenager on such gangs in a bid to score a point.”

Dutton was also accused of racism by independent MP Zali Steggall, after he claimed in parliament that issuing visas to those coming from a war zone was “an egregious breach of what is in our country’s best interests”.

“Imagine if the Howard government or the Morrison government had suggested we would bring people in who are sympathisers to Saddam Hussein or to al-Qaeda or to ISIL, or to ISIS?” he asked.

Former immigration department secretary Abul Rizvi said Dutton’s concerns were about practices that had applied to all previous conflicts, including the recent war in Ukraine, and ASIO’s level of involvement had not changed.

“If you expected perfection from a war zone, we would never have accepted anybody in the last 50 years,” he said.

Authorities would have first checked whether applicants were identified as Hamas leaders or supporters on a movement alert list, Rizvi said. “The next step is, increasingly ASIO gets involved, they will look at what they know about a person’s criminal background.”

They would next examine people’s links to Australia and probe whether their family members or contacts had any security issues. “And you would also look at what the person does in Gaza, their social media, who they connect with, and try to establish from that if they will be a security risk.”

Rizvi said almost all the Palestinians who had been granted visas had family links to Australia, and many would have been interviewed in Egypt or Jordan before arriving.

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