Anthony Albanese silent on Hamas supporters’ visas

Australians are in the dark on whether Hamas supporters are being issued with visas, as Anthony Albanese refusing to say if backers of the terror group would be barred from entry.

Anthony Albanese in question time on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Anthony Albanese has left Australians in the dark about whether current policy allows for the issuing of visas to Hamas supporters, after the Prime Minister twice refused to say if backers of the terror group would be disqualified from entry under the character test.

While nearly 3000 visas have already been issued to Palestinians fleeing the Gaza war since October 7, with at least 1300 Palestinians already in the country, Mr Albanese was twice asked by prominent Jewish Liberal MP ­Julian Leeser: “Does supporting Hamas pass the character test for an Australian visa?”

Mr Albanese told the parliament that “everyone who applies for an Australia is subject to the same security standard, set by the same agencies and the same personnel as under the former government”.

“Our intelligence agencies have the confidence of this side of the house,” he said.

The Prime Minister also said that ASIO director-general Mike Burgess had made clear that individuals who supported “violent extremism as an ideology” would encounter difficulties with their ASIO assessments.

“Our national security is something that historically in this place … has been above the sort of game playing and targeting that we’ve seen here,” he said.

Mr Leeser told The Australian: “I don’t understand why the Prime Minister cannot say what Australians expect a Prime Minister to say – that anyone who supports terrorist organisations like Hamas is not welcome here.”

Peter Dutton told the parliament that if it was the policy of the Australian government for somebody with a sympathy for the Hamas terrorist organisation to be eligible for a visa, then it was a “radical departure from the policies of any previous Labor or Liberal governments”.

“And yet what the Prime Minister did today was that he tried to hide behind ASIO yet again,” the Opposition Leader said.

He said it was without precedent for a government to allow people into Australia from a war zone governed by a listed terrorist organisation on a tourist visa.

On August 11, Mr Burgess told the ABC’s Insiders program that individuals who provided financial support or material aid to Hamas could encounter “a problem” in obtaining an Australian visa. But he acknowledged that individuals who only gave Hamas rhetorical support could gain entry without facing a problem.

“If it’s just rhetorical support and they don’t have an ideology or support for a violent extremism ideology then that’s not a problem,” he said.

“If they have a support for that ideology, that will be a problem.”

The Australian reported on Thursday that former deputy immigration­ ­secretary Abul Rizvi thought the government’s use of tourist visas for Palestinians was politically driven and that a special visa class should have been created. He said those granted visitor visas had been left to “grind their way” through the onshore asylum process, ­but also criticised Mr Dutton’s call last week for a blanket ban on entrants from Gaza.

Hitting out at the government’s handling of the issue on Thursday, Greens Leader Adam Bandt said Palestinians should have been granted a different visa from the very beginning.

“For whatever reason, Labor chose to take the path that it did. What it should have done is ensure that there was a strong and available humanitarian pathway for people … coming here,” he said.

Allegra Spender, the teal MP for Wentworth, told The Australian that “nobody wants supporters of Hamas or any terrorist organisation coming to Australia”.

“I have sought assurances from the department and security services that appropriate security procedures are in place, and that these are consistent with previous security protocols. They have provided me with these assurances,” she said.

Teal independent MP for North Sydney Kylea Tink said that when it came to “people fleeing war torn Gaza, I have consistently supported calls for a humanitarian visa pathway to be created for them, as we did for those fleeing both Ukraine and ­Afghanistan in recent times.”

Independent teal member for Warringah Zali Steggall said it was “disingenuous for the opposition to assert that national security is the primary concern”.

She said that when Australia was assisting refugees who were fleeing Afghanistan in 2021, “no one suggested that gave rise to a security risk as further checks occur here”.