Greens call for Anthony Albanese to take more refugees from Gaza

The Greens have attacked Labor for doing too little to bring ­Palestinians to Australia and dismissed as ‘dog whistling’ the concerns about ­security risks.

David Shoebridge says Labor has ‘failed to meet the moment’ on accepting refugees from Gaza.

The Greens have attacked Labor for doing too little to bring ­Palestinians to Australia amid the Middle East conflict and dismissed as “dog whistling” the concerns about whether those fleeing the war-torn territory might pose ­security risks.

The minor party is pushing for an increase in the size of the ­humanitarian intake – set at 20,000 refugee and humanitarian visas a year – and has ­rejected the link between the housing crisis and the post-Covid migration boom.

As part of a series exploring the Greens’ policy platform, the minor party’s immigration spokesman, David Shoebridge, told The Australian that there was “no question that the ­Albanese government has failed to meet the ­moment when it comes to accepting people fleeing the genocide in Gaza”.

“Barely 2000 Palestinians have been able to find temporary refuge in Australia from that appalling genocide. Australia should and must do better,” he said.

“And that includes (a) revised humanitarian intake and a clear humanitarian visa pathway.

“I don’t think anyone could look at the level of destruction that we’ve seen in Gaza and think that Australia’s response is in any way adequate.”

Senator Shoebridge also took aim at the Coalition for raising concerns about whether those granted visas to come to Australia from Gaza and the West Bank had been subjected to property security checks.

“There’s appalling dog whistling from the Coalition, acquainting anyone who is Palestinian as a security risk,” he said.

“It’s not a worthy response from a party that is posturing to be the alternative government.”

Officials from the Department of Home Affairs told a parliamentary committee at the end of May that 2686 visas had been granted to Palestinians since the October 7 massacre, while there had been a total of 1044 ­arrivals.

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The government has forecast that net overseas migration is ­forecast to shrink from 528,000 in 2022-23 to 260,000 in 2024-25.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also promised to slash the permanent migration intake to 140,000 for two years before raising it to 150,000 in year three and 160,000 in year four.

However, Senator Shoebridge did not provide a direct answer to The Australian on whether the Greens supported a reduction in the migration intake.

“Australia’s migration numbers should be set with long-term goals such as ensuring that dias­pora communities remain connected through family reunion, meeting our global obligations, a fair humanitarian intake and then, together with domestic investment in TAFE and universities, that we meet the needs of Australian industry and skills,” he said.

“That’s a debate that doesn’t lend itself to an annual bunfight over a particular number.”

However, former Greens ­leader Bob Brown told The Australian in 2020 that Australia needed to be a leader in helping to drive down the “alarming” rate of global population growth and ­lamented the reluctance of the ­environmental movement to ­address the issue.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather also told The Australian that the level of ­migration was not one of the major causes of the housing crisis, rejecting the link drawn by the ­Coalition.

“We saw during Covid when net migration got down to zero, house prices turbocharged,” Mr Chandler-Mather said.

“(Take) net overseas migration from, say, the start of the Covid lockdown from June 2020 … in terms of new migrant households – so you take the total net ­migration and divide it by the ­average household size which is about 2.4 – you have about 300,000 new migrant households.

“In that same time, Australia built just over 600,000 homes.”