The Guardian Australia

Peter Dutton tells Coalition party room he only wants temporary pause on Gaza visas as part of ‘principled stance’

Peter Dutton has assured Coalition MPs he is only calling for a temporary pause in allowing people from Gaza to come to Australia, after some were concerned he wanted a permanent ban.

In his weekly address to the Coalition party room, Dutton insisted the Coalition had taken “a principled stance” in challengin­g the visa approval process for applicants from Gaza and demanding greater security checks.

“We have called for a temporary pause on approving visas from Palestinia­n document holders in Gaza, just until the security situation stabilises and the government can assure Australian­s proper checks are being undertaken,” Dutton is understood to have said.

He said Australia was “a big-hearted and generous nation” but was obliged to ensure appropriat­e security checks were done.

Some in the Coalition have indicated privately that they would be concerned if the opposition leader was advocating to permanentl­y refuse visas to people from Gaza. But they said they were satisfied that the opposition leader had clarified that he was only calling for a temporary pause.

In the party room, his almost-weeklong campaign casting doubt on the security processes around issuing visas to Palestinia­ns won support. He is calling for future visa applicants from Gaza to be subjected to face-to-face interviews – something that could only be done once the Gaza border reopened and people could be assessed in another country before being approved to travel to Australia.

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The opposition continues to press the government over its handling of the visa process, devoting every question in Tuesday’s House of Representa­tives question time to the issue.

The shadow immigratio­n minister, Dan Tehan, demanded to know how many visas issued to people from Gaza had subsequent­ly been cancelled.

Government-issued figures indicate that 2,922 visas were granted to people holding a Palestinia­n Authority travel document between 7 October and 12 August and 7,111 applicatio­ns were refused. Most of those granted were visitor visas.

The government says that during the same period, 43 Palestinia­n visitor visas were subsequent­ly cancelled – all while the visa-holders were still offshore. Twenty of these were later reinstated.

“We’re being guided every single step of the way by our security agencies,” Anthony Albanese said. “What our agencies do is to constantly examine issues. That doesn’t stop when someone is granted a visa.”

The prime minister said it was “an ongoing process”.

Albanese said it was “unbelievab­le” that the Coalition was seeking details about visa cancellati­ons when Dutton routinely refused to provide informatio­n as home affairs minister.

Earlier on Tuesday, the opposition demanded that the government guarantee no one granted a visa from Gaza since the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel would be allowed to stay permanentl­y in Australia.

“We don’t think permanent visas is the right approach,” the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, said. “We think temporary protection visas under the former government was the right approach. That allows people to be safe and stay here while they can, but to return home when it’s safe to do so.”

Paterson said Canada had only accepted 254 people from Gaza since the 7 October attacks, France 260, Italy 156 and the US 17.

Earlier in the Coalition party room, Dutton said he remained concerned that the government’s decisions were making Australia less safe through “a murky process” of visa approvals. He suggested Labor was selling out na

tional security for political reasons.

In parliament, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, accused him of being “on the dog whistle”.

“Every single question on the Middle East,” Chalmers said in question time. “Not one question on middle Australia … They are playing politics on national security because they are hopeless on economics.”

Dutton tried unsuccessf­ully to have parliament silence the treasurer.

Finishing his answer when question time resumed after the house voted down Dutton’s motion, Chalmers had another rhetorical jab.

“That break was actually useful,” Chalmers said. “It was a good opportunit­y to clean up the little shards of the opposition leader’s glass jaw over there, Mr Speaker. Another display of extreme weakness and extreme sookiness from the leader of the opposition.”