Peter Dutton has committed to redoing security checks for thousands of Palestinians from Gaza granted visitor visas in Australia as he doubled down on introducing questions on antisemitism in citizenship tests.
In a press conference in Perth on Wednesday, Dutton said Palestinians on visitor visas would be subject to further scrutiny, echoing the Coalition’s previous claims – without evidence – that they are a national security risk.
“We won’t compromise on border security. We have been clear about that. Our nation is the greatest in the world,” Dutton said.
“We welcome migrants coming to our country. We have the most successful migration program but we won’t compromise on those settings, which provide screening of people who are coming in from a war zone.”
The Coalition first floated the idea of changing citizenship requirements in February after a viral video emerged of two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening Israeli patients.
At the time Anthony Albanese dismissed the idea as a “thought bubble” along with a proposal to hold a referendum to give the government more power to deport criminals with dual citizenship.
Dutton said on Wednesday he remained committed to changing the citizenship test to include questions on antisemitism.
In August 2024 Dutton had advocated for a temporary pause on granting visas to people from Gaza, claiming the decisions were making Australia less safe due to “a murky process” of visa approvals.
More than 3,000 Palestinians have been granted visitor visas since 7 October 2023, with the home affairs department offering some 995 Palestinian and Israeli nationals a three-year humanitarian visa, as of January.
Palestinians must be approved by both the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, and are subject to rigorous security checks.
The Asio chief, Mike Burgess, has previously said Palestinians with visas had “gone through the process” and “part of the process is, where criteria are hit, they’re referred to my organisation and Asio does its thing”.
The vetting process searches an applicant’s name against a watch list, and anyone red-flagged is referred to Asio for a full security assessment involving consulting with other countries’ security agencies. In the case of Palestinian applicants, that includes Israel. The strict criteria for referring and conducting an assessment is detailed in the Asio Act.
Asked whether Dutton didn’t trust the existing process, he responded: “We will take advice and conduct proper security checks.”
