Once again, Australian opposition have the Albanese government by the jugular on a critical issue, and they’re not letting go. The last time, it was the dangerous, divisive Voice referendum. Now, it’s the suicidal insanity of flooding the country with Hamas supporters with no vetting.
Labor’s obvious goal is to pander to Muslim Western Sydney and try and stop their far-left vote drifting further to the Greens. No matter what it takes.
Coalition frontbencher James Paterson has demanded Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke release departmental advice issued to the federal government regarding its decision to grant tourist visas, rather than refugee visas, to Palestinians fleeing war torn Gaza.
Senator Paterson’s comments came after former immigration official Abul Rizvi told The Australian that Labor’s decision to grant some 3000 visitor visas to Palestinians since October 7 was politically motivated and almost certainly done against departmental advice.
Arrivals that apply for a tourist visa generally face less stringent security vetting procedures than those who register for a refugee visa.
In fact, many of the visas were approved, online, in less than an hour. Not only were ASIO not involved in the almost-non-existent vetting procedure, but the spy agency’s boss has stated that supporting Hamas, a proscribed terror group, wouldn’t be grounds for refusal.
Caught in the spotlights, Labor are doing their best to avoid questions.
Under the Migration Act, all visa applications are required to be assessed on their merits.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus has assured Australians that appropriate security checks are being applied to refugees arriving from Gaza […]
Pressed on whether the government had gone against departmental advice in granting tourist visas rather than refugee visas with more stringent security checks, Mr Dreyfus would not comment.
The cheap gambit of using tourist visas to circumvent proper scrutiny is simply diabolical. Not least because every man and his dog knows what will happen next. Even if they never set a toe in the country, the Jew-hating terror supporters will use the simply fact of having a visa as leverage in the years of lawfare inevitably to come.
The scandal has ignited a wave of fury across Australia, with voters firmly behind Peter Dutton and the opposition. As he did when he belatedly twigged that he’d landed himself in the poo with the Voice, Albo has been desperate to try and distance himself from it all. He can only dodge accountability for so long.
For the first time in two weeks Anthony Albanese has blinked on the question of visas being issued to people from the war-torn, terrorist-governed Gaza region after a week of dogged refusal to concede any political ground or confirm any facts […] for the first time in two parliamentary sitting weeks Albanese was forced to answer a question on Gaza visas.
That may not sound much, but it is testament to the doggedness of the opposition leader.
With the patience and all the demeanour of a determined dentist, Peter Dutton has been trying to pull teeth of truth from the government over Gaza and concentrate on Albanese’s leadership and misuse of the words of ASIO boss Mike Burgess last week.
Albanese simply rejected, deflected and rebuffed all the questions, dodging around, producing non sequiturs and attacking the Opposition Leader personally.
But on Wednesday he gave the smallest of concessions.
Dutton knows that he’s got Albo over the ropes regarding this debacle. Albanese knows it, too. But he can only run and hide for so long.
