Police in New South Wales are highly concerned the Albanese government may have given visas to Hamas supporters, with inadequate security vetting risking community safety. Law enforcement in New South Wales are frustrated at what they say is a lack of consultation and inadequate security checks. They see this as an unacceptable risk to community safety.
The last thing we need is Hamas supporters in the community. We have a responsibility to protect the people in New South Wales. It’s understood that counter-terrorism police in New South Wales have received no information about which individuals have come from the war zone. This is effectively a vote of no confidence by New South Wales Police in the Albanese Government’s handling of immigration, national security and community safety.
The Coalition stepped up its political attack on Albanese in Parliament today, accusing him of running what they called a visa for votes scheme. “Will the Prime Minister admit that this visa for votes scheme was only done to shore up votes in the seats of Watson, McMahon and Blacksland?”
This is the second week the Prime Minister has been unable to strongly defend or even explain the security process for the visas. He hid behind the intelligence agencies yet again, saying he has faith that they will do their job. But this is highly misleading, and it goes to the very heart of the issue. ASIO has no oversight of this issue.and it goes to the very heart of the issue. Fast-track visitor visas are being issued in just one hour after an online application process. ASIO and the other intelligence agencies are scrambling to play catch up after the government deliberately decided to use visitor visas to rush them through. And on the weekend, Ed Husic admitted that the visitor visas were used because they were faster.
Home Affairs today confirmed that almost all applications for migration and temporary visas are lodged online regardless of where the applicant is, and this includes Palestinian applications. Home Affairs then also claimed that a departmental officer was involved in the process for each visa.
The Coalition asked the Prime Minister, “Of the almost 3,000 visas approved for people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone, how many were approved by an automated process and did not involve a referral to ASIO?” The Prime Minister initially joked about this question. He simply wouldn’t answer it. Eventually, he claimed none of them were fully automated, but he couldn’t confirm that all had security checks. So he couldn’t say that there was an ASIO security assessment for each visa because it’s just not happening. Visitor visas are being issued through an automated online process with no checks by ASIO. The Prime Minister keeps trying to claim that ASIO has been involved in background checks for the nearly 3,000 Palestinians who’ve been given visas, but the claim is simply false.
The Australian’s political journalist, Jeff Chambers, also wrote that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, ASIO, was drafted in, only if the department requested higher level assessments. In fact, most electronic visitor visas were issued after an online questionnaire, basically self-assessment. By contrast, humanitarian visas, refugee visas that Ed Husic said would take too long, they would have involved extensive biometric checks, face-to-face interviews, and intelligence screening. None of that has happened in most cases here. And in further proof that the visa process has been rushed and inadequate is the fact that 23 people were issued visas. They were on their way to Australia when they were cancelled.
The process has been chaotic to say the least. Now the coalition asked the Prime Minister why his government security assessments have been far weaker than our Five Eyes (Australia, Canada, NZ, UK and the US) counterparts which have required face-to-face interviews. Why have we fast-tracked visas for nearly 3,000 people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone since October 7, yet our allies like the UK have taken in 168 and the United States only 17.
Many comparable countries require face-to-face interviews in third countries or biometric tests to apply for a visa, conditions that Albanese government has waived. Was this decision based on security advice or political expediency? Well the Prime Minister again just wouldn’t answer the question. The Albanese government is shockingly naive about the risks they’re imposing on Australians.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned that any mass exodus of Gazans would risk bringing militants into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula from where they might launch attacks on Israel, endangering the two countries 40-year peace treaty. And Jordan, with its large Palestinian community, has been similarly reluctant to open up to Gazans. So have other Arab states. That has lessons for Mr. Albanese and Mr. Burke as they put out the welcome mat. It seems Albanese is uninterested in learning lessons from Gaza’s closest neighbours. He appears driven by his lifelong pro-Palestinian activism. Activism that has seen him personally, as an MP, protest outside the American embassy at a rally where Israeli and American flags were burnt. It’s my belief that’s what drives him, along with his desire to remain in the plum job of prime minister now.
A job he only hopes to retain if Labor doesn’t lose marginal seats in Western Sydney.
