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Opposition leader Peter Dutton has called for a complete ban on Palestinian refugees from entering Australia, claiming it is putting our national security at risk.
He made the controversial comments while being interviewed this morning, adding that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was not conducting checks or searches on those arriving in the country.
"I don't think people should be coming in from that warzone at all at the moment," he said in an interview with Sky News.
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"It's not prudent to do so and I think it puts our national security at risk."
Australia has granted more than 2600 visas to Palestinians, and rejected a further 4600, since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, according to Senate Estimates from May.
Of those, only about 1300 have arrived and remain in Australia.
Dutton raised his concerns during question time in Parliament today, asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese whether supporting a listed terrorist organisation like Hamas passed the character test in a visa application.
To that, Albanese said: "If the Leader of the Opposition doesn't have confidence in that system, he should say so."
"It's exactly the same system that was in place when the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Immigration who presided over these issues."
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said each visa application, regardless of which country the applicant is from, was run through an ASIO vetting process that's updated every 24 hours.
"There will be no compromise on national security, none," he said in Parliament.
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The Home Affairs department and ASIO have been contacted for comment.
Education Minister Jason Clare said the security checks in place were the same procedures in place when Dutton was the former Liberal Home Affairs Minister.
He invited Dutton to his Western Sydney electorate — which has one of largest populations of Muslims in the city — and meet Gazans who have settled into Australia.
"There's more than a thousand people from Gaza here now," he said.
"These are people who've had their home blown up, who've had their school blown up, who've had their hospital blown up, in some cases have had their kids blown up, and these are people who are trying to rebuild their lives here in Australia.
"Come and visit them, look them in the eyes and I think that he'll learn a bit."
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Palestinians have fled Gaza to countries like Australia to escape the enclave where Israel's ongoing retaliation on Hamas nears its one-year mark.
About 1200 Israelis were killed and another 250 were taken hostage last year in Hamas' surprise attack, according to Israeli authorities.
The Palestinian health ministry estimates almost 40,000 people in Gaza have been killed as a result of Israel's retaliatory assault.
