Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has described teal MP Zali Steggall as a “zealot” as he stays firm on his argument that Palestinian refugees from Gaza should not come to Australia.
Yesterday in Canberra, after Dutton’s divisive call for a total ban on migration from Gaza, the opposition bombarded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with questions about checks done on the 2922 Palestinians given visas since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and accused him of misquoting ASIO boss Mike Burgess by overstating the agency’s role in vetting people.
Peter Dutton during Question Time. Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald
Speaking on Nine’s Today program, Dutton repeated his argument that the Labor government is not properly checking refugees from Gaza and that there should be a total migration ban.
“They’ve said that they’re going to allow people who have sympathy to a terrorist organisation, a listed terrorist organisation, to come into our country. They’ve allowed 1500 people into our country on a tourist visa,” he said.
“No other country in the world has done that. Not even countries in the Middle East or adjoining countries. Jordan, Egypt, not the United States, not the United Kingdom, not France.
“And if I mean the nonsense and the rhetoric, you’ve heard from the hard left and zealots like Zali Steggall, who are just hard greens, it’s just nonsense. They’ve got no substance to their argument, and I don’t think the vast majority of Australians believe that the Albanese government’s got their migration program under control.”