National security too important for ‘divisive politics’: PM
Anthony Albanese continues:
National security is too important for the sort of divisive politics that those opposite are trying to play here.
They know that that’s the case, but they simply don’t care.
For them, everything that happens is an opportunity to try to divide Australia at a time, in spite of the director-general’s very clear warnings about the climate that we are in, the very clear warnings, and his call for responsible political leadership.
We are seeing anything but that from those opposite.
Key events
The LNP MP for Fadden, Cameron Caldwell asks Anthony Albanese:
Prime Minister, the Department of Home Affairs told Senate estimates on 28th May that as of the 31st of March 2024, 39 visitor visas from individuals from the terrorist controlled Gaza war zone were cancelled, but 12 of those cancellation decisions were later revoked.
Prime Minister, as of today, how many visas from individuals from the Gaza war zone have been cancelled since the 7th of October? And were any of the visas cancelled following additional security checks?
Albanese:
We of course, take the same advice from the same security agencies, even the same security personnel as the former government did.
We have confidence in our security and law enforcement agencies to do their job, and one of the things that they do is do it on an ongoing basis.
We don’t discuss all of the methods that our agencies use to determine if someone is a national security risk, for obvious reasons, we are.
We encourage the director general of ASIO to directly engage so as to depoliticise these issues.
That’s why the director general of ASIO goes onto TV. Not because. Not because it’s something that is in his wish list of wanting to tick off, but because it’s the right thing to do, because it is consistent with his view about the need to lower the temperature in this country.
And if those opposite think that the circumstances are that we don’t need to lower the temperature, then they can continue down this cul de sac.
They can continue down there. But I’ve got to say that we want to ensure the security of our nation is prioritised, not a news grab, not a headline.
Opposition MP suggests up to 75% of Gaza population ‘support listed terrorist organisation Hamas’
Jenny Ware has the next question and it is on – you guessed it, security arrangements.
Prime minister, it is reported that between 40 to 75% of people in the Gaza war zone support listed terrorist organisation Hamas. Is it the government’s policy that sympathy for Hamas is not grounds for visa refusal or cancellation?
One of the reports Ware is referring to is from the Times of Israel. About 50% of the population of Gaza are children. It is unclear who is polling the population of Gaza, and how, given the level of displacement and the difficulty of movement.
Anthony Albanese:
I just say to the member for Hughes, I hope you have better pollsters than people who come to you and say it’s somewhere between 40 and 75.
That is an extraordinary question to ask. I’m not sure, in seriousness, how you poll Gaza at the moment.
Do you have a TV? Have a look at what has happened to Gaza. The idea that there is polling going on in Gaza at the moment – just really – in order to make a point, in order to ask a question here.
I mean, we have issues in this country of dealing with the global impact of inflation, cost of living pressures, housing, education. We had a report this week about Naplan and about students falling behind …
Peter Dutton jumps up to ask a question on relevance which leads to a bit of a back and forth about the “relevance” of polling the war-torn population of Gaza, given the Israeli blockade, which includes limiting movement.
It is Dan Tehan time again. Woohoo.
The Albanese government, primarily under minister Giles, has issued more than 2,900 visas to individuals from the Gaza war zone since the October 7th atrocity. Were all the individuals referred to Asio for security checks, or was it only where criteria are hit?
(Of those 2,900 visas issued, only about 1,300 people made it to Australia before Israel closed the Rafah border crossing for Palestinians.)
Anthony Albanese:
I refer to my previous answers where I have indicated that what we do is we have in place appropriate arrangements to ensure our national security and to keep people safe.
That is what we do. That is what the Asio director-general has expressed his confidence in the system. That is something that he did not just in the media conference that we held, but on [7.30] and on the Insiders program.
We work regularly and closely with our security agencies. We take their advice, and if those opposite don’t have confidence in the security agencies or in the director-general, they should say so.
Karen Middleton
Responding to One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is telling the Senate that the government will not ban foreign ownership of residential homes in Australia, and that the figures show less than 1% of homes are foreign owned.
Gallagher says there are strong rules around foreign ownership and it has benefited the economy.
It would help if some of our housing programs, which are currently stalled in the Senate, were given the approval by this Senate, because then we could build more supply – which is the actual issue.
Roberts says the government should “put Australians in Australian houses first”.
Catherine King continues:
if the guarantee is triggered, affected customers will receive a refund directly from their credit card, merchant or travel booking provider, backed by the government guarantee. Any drawdown of the guarantee is required to be repaid by the administrators.
The guarantee applies to any Rex regional flight bookings made after Rex entered voluntary administration from 9:31pm on Tuesday 30 July 2024.
This guarantee is about assuring customers and communities that they can and should continue booking regional flights with Rex, flights that allow them to stay connected with their family, their friends, their healthcare and other services, while also helping to maintain regional aviation in Australia.
It’s a message very clearly to regional Australia: we know how important reliable air services are to you.
We are not going to allow your communities to be left behind. And to say to members of the public, this guarantee does mean you can continue to book on Rex flights and should do so during the period of voluntary administration. And that guarantee allows some confidence about that.
Albanese government guarantees Rex bookings throughout administration process
Catherine King answers a dixer on the future of Rex airlines very carefully:
The Australian government is guaranteeing regional flight bookings for Rex customers for tickets purchased after the administration period began.
That means that travellers can book regional flights on Rex throughout the voluntary administration process with confidence that they will either fly or get their money back.
This is not a commonwealth injection of funds into Rex or the administrators. It is a guarantee for bookings made after the airline entered into voluntary administration. The guarantee will only be triggered if a service is cancelled and where no alternate service has been delivered and no refund.
(Continued in next post)
Andrew Wilkie asks the prime minister:
A succession of federal governments, LNP and Labor, have a shameful history of paying lip service to the recommendations of royal commissions.
Just look at the critical reaction to your government’s response to the disability royal commission. And we’re still waiting for a government, any government, to act on the Aboriginal deaths in custody royal commission. So with the veterans royal commission about to drop, will you commit to urgently implement all its recommendations?
Anthony Albanese:
Of course, we haven’t seen the recommendations of the royal commission, so it’s a bit hard to comment specifically on them. But we of course, in terms of the spirit of the royal commission that we supported being established, we will give proper consideration to all of them, as I’m sure will other members of this parliament.
Veteran suicide is indeed a national tragedy, and we are taking the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide extremely seriously, which is why we’ve been prepared to provide it with additional resources so that they could hear from more veterans.
It’s why we responded very quickly to the royal commission’s interim report, and why we’ve now taken action on each of the recommendations of that report. Every one of them, we have taken actions on.
He goes on to speak about the lack of funding in veterans’ affairs under the previous government and to pay tribute to Australia’s veterans.
Anthony Albanese continues:
We know that our security agencies do their job in a diligent way. The honourable member would know, as a former at least shadow attorney-general, that the, I don’t know if he served on the national security committee, but he would know about the arrangements that we have in place for security with other agencies.
If you want me to go down the track of talking about the arrangements we have with our Five Eyes partners, with other governments, that is an extraordinary question for him to expect, frankly.
What we do is we make sure our priority is to keep Australians safe. I have confidence in our security agencies. I would hope the member does as well.
Julian Leeser asks Anthony Albanese:
Of the 2,900 people issued with visitor visas from the terrorist controlled* Gaza war zone, how many applicants have had their biometric data checked against Israeli government records on known Hamas members or sympathisers or those known or suspected to have participated in 7 October terrorist attacks?
*44% of voters in Gaza voted for Hamas in 2006. There has not been an election since.
Albanese:
I am asked a question about Australia, I’m asked a question as well about Israel’s database as well, which I certainly don’t think I’m in a position to answer.
I also, it’s a fact that one of the things we don’t do, as I said to previous questions, go through all the detail of our security arrangements and the member would understand why that’s the case.
I don’t think Israel does that either, by the way, just as a matter of fact.
… Let’s be very clear about what has occurred here. The leader of the opposition went to welcome Olympians home, did an interview and once again, made up a policy.
It didn’t go to shadow cabinet, didn’t go to the caucus, no process whatsoever. Just like so many other issues that have occurred. And then the worst thing about that is the leader of the opposition should know better.
While we are talking about the “24 hour” visa approvals and “one hour” visa approval, it might be worth checking with what was actually said in Senate estimates in February.
This is an exchange between the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, and Michael Willard, acting deputy secretary of immigration.
Paterson:
There’s been some controversy about this in the media, and the minister for foreign affairs, among others, has reassured the public that no processes were expedited, no corners were cut – all the usual processes were followed. But there was also a media report by the ABC on 9 December, entitled ‘Australians turn to WhatsApp group for help to get family members out of Gaza’, in which some individuals claimed their visitor visas for relatives were approved within one hour. Does that sound right to you? Is it possible that a visitor visa was approved in a single hour?
Willard:
It is possible. I’d make this point in terms of the way we assess a visitor visa: we draw on a vast range of information that we hold, and we apply that information to the circumstances presented in a visitor visa application. There could be circumstances where someone, for example, has a strong travel record, is well known to us and has a routine that we’re familiar with, where the visitor visa could be granted in that time frame.
The independent MP Andrew Gee asks:
The Nguyen family in Bathurst are a much loved and are highly respected in our local community. They run the Anam Vietnamese restaurant which is a Bathurst institution … through no fault of their own they’ve had their visas knocked back and over 19,000 people have signed a position to have them stay in Australia. Minister, their case is now on your desk. Will you support this family in their quest to stay in Bathurst and Australia?
Tony Burke:
I have some familiarity with the case. I don’t know all the details of it as I understand it the through no fault of their own the person who was sponsoring them lost the right to sponsor.
And there is a challenge there.
What I’d encourage the member even today straight after question time directly to me with a representation …
Certainly the issues as you’ve raised appear, and as I understand the case from what I’ve seen initially, is something where the individuals concerned don’t appear, at this stage with the information I have, don’t appear to be at fault in terms of the circumstances that have arisen. That doesn’t mean, if there may be specific rules that simply can’t be bent, it might be the case. But with all representation we will get departmental advice.
Peter Dutton then attempts to suspend standing orders to move his motion, but Tony Burke wanders up to the despatch box and moves that the motion be heard after the matter of public importance debate (which is later this afternoon and will be too late for most of the 6pm news bulletins. Which is the point of moving it.)
Returning to question time, this is who the prime minister was referring to.
Anthony Albanese:
I’m talking about a real human being who is now here.
What she went on to say – and that is what this is about, real human beings, with real children and real families and real trauma and real tragedy.
And the impact that that has had, whether it be the innocent lives that have been lost in Israel or the innocent lives that have been lost in Gaza, that has had a traumatic effect on everyone who is related to them here and on the communities, whether they be the Israeli community or the Palestinian community. And that is one of the reasons why we have been asked by those people who run our national security to lower the temperature, to think about what we do as political leaders.
And the former deputy prime minister knows that I have the most respect for him. I was with him in his community, including with migrants just a few weeks ago in Cowra, he was speaking with me about the migration, including people from, formerly from Afghanistan who have settled there in central western New South Wales, who are good citizens.
He runs out of time.
Peter Dutton then attempts to seize the call to move a motion to suspend standing orders and there is a big procedural back and forth over whether he can actually have the call. It ends with Milton Dick ruling no, and the questions move on.
Sydney Metro train line gains final safety approvals
Elias Visontay
(Stepping out of politics for a moment)
The new section of the Sydney Metro train line running from Chatswood through the city centre to Sydenham could open to the public within days after it gained final safety approvals from the regulator.
The Sydney Metro City section had been scheduled to open on Sunday 4 August, but this was postponed after final safety approvals were not received in the days leading up to its opening, amid reports a firefighter conducting safety drills received an electric shock that raised authorities’ alarm.
However, on Thursday afternoon, the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator said the Sydney Metro City section had gained final approvals. It said:
ONRSR has completed its assessment of the evidence in support of the operational safety case for Sydney Metro City Section and granted the necessary approvals. A commencement date for passenger services is a matter for the NSW Government via its relevant agencies.
The New South Wales government has not yet announced an opening date, but the premier, Chris Minns, has suggested it could be within a matter of days.
For more on the Sydney Metro City:
Michael McCormack is up with the next question:
Of the more than 2,900 people issued visas from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone, primarily let in by the former immigration minister, the Member for Scullin [Andrew Giles], have all of them been subjected to a biometric test and an in-person interview?
The opposition has been using the term “terrorist controlled Gaza war zone”. Hamas was elected after a split vote in 2006. There has not been another election since.
Anthony Albanese:
On biometric testing, that is something that the director-general of Asio addressed as well on his Insiders interview on Sunday. What we have done is to make sure that we work with our security agencies to keep Australians safe. That’s what we do.
This morning, one of those people, Dr Mona Kaskeen again, I listened to her on RN this morning. She is a Palestinian neurosurgeon who fled Gaza, who is now in Sydney. This is what she said about how she got to come here. ‘The people who came from Gaza, they are seeking a good life for them and their children. They are very highly qualified people because many of them are doctors and engineers. They are people seeking a good life. We came here just to live in peace and to protect our family. I like Australia, I like living here, it is quiet and safe. My children feel safe here. People from Gaza, they want to live safe and protect their family, they want to live in peace.’
Dan Tehan then stands up to ask a point of order, and Milton Dick warns him that Albanese is being directly relevant and there can not be a point of order on relevance. Tehan persists.
