ASIO Boss Mike Burgess has told us all what we already suspected, Hamas supporters are are a ‘security threat’. He is right, but the situation has been complicated by an absent-minded Penny Wong.
Like many things, we act first and think second. Haphazardly, the Australian government decided to allow in Palestinian refugees after Israel waged a war against Hamas. Israel’s bombing campaign left thousands of Palestinians wounded, dead, and displaced.
There is a really humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, but that should not deter the Australian Government from making hard decisions about security threats.
But the question of how Palestinians are vetted is an important one that many want to neglect. While Burgess pointed out that support for Hamas wanting a homeland for Palestinians isn’t’ necessarily a security threat, he rightly asserted that
“But I also said if you have a violent extremist ideology or you provide material or financial support to a terrorist organisation, that will be a problem.”
Australia is not Israel, but Australia supports Israel, and the intelligence services in Australia need to assess how to define’ support for Hamas’. Because Australia supports Israel, is Australia at risk? The other issue is how many Palestinians leaving war-torn Gaza pose a security threat in Australia?
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been critical of the Albanese government and ASIO. He said, ‘I just think every Australian would be shocked to think that the government’s bringing in people from a war zone and that ASIO is not conducting checks and searches on these people.”
Meanwhile, Penny Wong doesn’t know what she thinks on the issue. In a palpably ignorant exchange at a senate hearing, Wong confusingly stated, ‘I don’t tend to read Hamas propaganda’. Well, Penny, maybe you should as foreign minister. If you did, you would read that in the Hamas charter it wants to completely eradicate Israel.
You may think that’s just a problem for Israel, and you would be right. But what about allies of Israel? Australia has a longstanding diplomatic relationship with Israel.
If it is the case that Hamas has embedded itself in the civilian population in Gaza, is it really hard to believe that they wouldn’t do the same when entering Australia?
Hamas is a bona fide terrorist group, and we have arrived at this political mess through Wong’s ignorant and ill-informed policy decisions.
Going back to the outbreak of the war, Wong announced in November 2023 that Palestinians leaving Gaza would be allowed to enter Australia.
The problem is not that they are Palestinian; the problem is whether and to what extent they support Hamas and acts of terrorism.
The AWRAD poll has come back to haunt Australia and ASIO. 75% of Palestinian respondents supported Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th.
The question for the Albanese government and ASIO is, how many of those entering Australia would take their or plan to take their grievances further on foreign shores?
One thing can be said of ASIO director, Mike Burgess, he appears to be doing his best to protect Australia’s national security despite the increasing level of politicization by both sides of the political isle.
He said in a recent interview:
“If you think terrorism is OK, if you think the destruction of the State of Israel is OK, if you think Hamas and what they did on the 7th of October is OK, I can tell you that is not OK, and from an ASIO security assessment point of view, you will not pass muster.”
Many would think such a view is common sense, but the Albanese government’s desire to be the good Samaritan has blinded it to the very real threat of terrorism in Australia.
No one is denying the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but Burgess is right to point out that it matters what a person thinks and believes about terrorism and Hamas.
