Much of the Labor Party, all the Greens and teals and many journalists have been wilfully blind about asylum-seeker policy, some for more than three decades.
For many, branding as racist supporters of orderly and careful asylum-seeker policy is a sign of personal moral rectitude. Think teal member for Warringah Zali Steggall accusing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of racism in the parliament on August 15 and now wanting higher standards of parliamentary behaviour.
Given recent terror attacks here by young Muslim males, this column can only conclude Steggall and her supporters value soft hearts over hard heads.
Think Curtis Cheng’s 2015 shooting by 15-year-old Farhad Mohammad in Parramatta, 18-year-old Numan Haider’s stabbing attack on two counter-terrorism police in Melbourne in 2014, and the stabbing of Assyrian Archbishop Mar Mari Emmanuel by a 16-year-old boy at Wakeley in western Sydney in April.
Given the fury of the Muslim world over events in Gaza, Dutton has sensibly called for a pause on visas until a safe way can be sorted out to make sure no Hamas sympathisers are among those offered tourism visas. Dutton has pursued the issue in parliament for the past two weeks.
An ABC Insiders interview with ASIO chief Mike Burgess on August 11 triggered this debate. Burgess said it was OK for Gazans who expressed “rhetorical support” for Hamas to come here as long as “they don’t have an ideology or support for violent extremism”.
Given the anti-Semitism on show from some in the Muslim community, it is easy to understand concern at Burgess’s statement. Hamas is committed to destroying Israel and killing Jews, so it’s unclear how Gazans who offer “rhetorical support” for the group will contribute to social cohesion here.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese misquoted Burgess to imply all visa recipients from Gaza were being checked by ASIO. Burgess in fact said checks occurred when certain flags were triggered.
The PM — and Steggall — should have known all this. Back in mid-February in Senate estimates, Department of Foreign Affairs deputy secretary Michael Willard, questioned by Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson, admitted most Gazans receiving visa approval had been processed within a single day and many within an hour.
At the time, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong had given several interviews claiming, wrongly, all Gazan applicants were being screened by ASIO. In February, Wong claimed 860 visas had been issued, but Willard admitted 2127 had in fact been issued between October 7 and December 31.
That figure now stands at 2922 visas granted since October 7, and 1500 of those visa holders have already arrived in Australia. More than 7000 applicants have been rejected.
Australia is more generous to Gazan visa applicants than most of our allies. The US had accepted only 17 applications from Gaza as of July 31 and the UK 168, according to an exclusive front-page report by Ben Packham and Geoff Chambers in The Australian last week.
But, right back on February 22 on Sky News Australia, Sharri Markson revealed one refugee already living in Melbourne who had “liked” several social media posts of fighters who had been part of the October 7 massacre. Zaher Abuamro, 21, denied the posts were his and claimed his account had been hacked.
Markson also revealed prominent Palestinian blogger Plestia Alaqad is now living in Australia.
Alaqad continues to claim Israel was responsible for 1000 deaths at the Al-Ahli hospital on October 17 even though it has been clear since November that 50 people were killed when an Islamic Jihad rocket misfired into the hospital’s carpark.
Six months after Markson’s work and the estimates hearing revelations on visa checks, many journalists now accuse Dutton of divisive politics. They have been wrong on asylum-seeker policy for 20 years.
Critics of tough refugee policies should know Labor left faction leader and Keating government immigration minister Gerry Hand introduced mandatory onshore detention for asylum-seekers without a valid visa right back in May 1992.
Recently removed Albanese government immigration minister Andrew Giles was a lawyer for asylum-seekers on the Tampa who were deported by former Coalition PM John Howard in 2004.
Giles brought the same refugee advocacy approach to his role in government and had to be dumped after losing control of his portfolio following a High Court case last year after which he released from detention 150 people with criminal convictions.
Giles, Albanese and Wong were behind the decision to bring Gazans here on tourist visas. They should have known better after the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor governments of 2007-13 abandoned Howard’s successful Pacific Solution.
History shows that ended in 50,000 arrivals by boat and 1200 drownings at sea. Yet Rudd had told this newspaper’s Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan before the 2007 election he would not hesitate to turn boats back. He didn’t.
Albanese was more honest. He was upfront nine years ago from opposition under then-Labor leader Bill Shorten he could never support boat turnbacks.
For many in the media, Dutton is simply a divisive leader using the Gaza issue for political gain.
Sure, he wants political capital, but he is also right on the risks of lazy asylum-seeker policy. Why have so many journalists allowed Albanese to claim Labor’s asylum-seeker policies are the same as those of the former Coalition government?
They must know when they parrot Labor lines about Coalition visas for asylum-seekers fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan and ISIS in Syria those people were assessed in third countries and many took a year to receive visas. Not an hour or a day like Gazans and not tourist visas for people certain to try to use the legal system to stay in Australia.
Sky News presenter Peta Credlin argues the government’s Gaza refugee strategy is a pitch to voters in Labor seats with high Muslim populations. The PM may have inadvertently confirmed this last Wednesday.
Answering an opposition question about shoring up votes in western Sydney, Albanese said: “I say this to the good people of Watson, Blaxland and McMahon that we will respect every one of you regardless of who you are, regardless of your faith, regardless of your ethnicity. We won’t vilify you. We won’t attack you.”
In the seat of Blaxland, held by Labor Education Minister Jason Clare, 31.7 per cent of voters are Muslim. Recently appointed Immigration Minister Tony Burke holds Watson and 25 per cent of the electorate is Muslim.
Some in the left media suggest the opposition has overplayed the Gaza visa issue. After a year of immigration blunders, such assessments are wrong.
This newspaper’s Dennis Shanahan was correct on Friday when referencing two questions from Jewish opposition MP Julian Leeser.
“Albanese made a bad error in being unable to definitely declare support for a proscribed terror organisation would deny someone access to a visa to Australia,” Shanahan wrote.
This is the real fault line in this Left faction-led government that is unlike all previous Labor governments.
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