Coalition leader Peter Dutton and PM Anthony Albanese have clashed over the Opposition’s calls for a blanket ban on travellers coming to Australia from Gaza. Dutton says people coming from a war zone “puts our national security at risk” – a response prompted by the Albanese Government’s work on a visa scheme for Palestinians. Yesterday, the PM accused his counterpart of “looking to divide” Australians and said his team will “listen to the security agencies when it comes to national security”.

Sounds like there’s more to it…

Yep. Mike Burgess, the boss of our security/spy agency ASIO, has spoken this week about the escalating threats in Australia – some of which are linked to conflicts like the war in Gaza. And what saw Dutton prick his ears up, was Burgess’ comment that migrants who express “rhetorical support” for Hamas might not be denied visas. Dutton said Australians “would be shocked that the government’s bringing in people from a war zone and that ASIO’s not conducting checks and searches”. But others say Burgess was taken out of context and of course ASIO considers full “contextual information” in its checks – something Albanese reiterated yesterday. “The role of ASIO, the use of the movement alert list, the processes that we use to vet visa applicants – all is unchanged,” he said. 

How many people are we talking about?

Interesting you ask because there’s some new data on that… Reports say 2,922 visas have been approved for people who hold Palestinian Authority travel documents since the 7 October attacks – but about 1,300 of those have actually arrived in Australia. The Home Affairs Department has rejected 7,111 other applications. And about 8,700 visas have been approved for Israeli applicants with 200 rejected. As for what’s happening on the ground in Gaza… Its Hamas-run health ministry says 39,790 Palestinians have been killed since the war started. The other update is that Iranian officials say only a Gaza ceasefire deal will stop them attacking Israel. Negotiators are due to meet today to restart talks – but that could be tricky given Hamas says it won’t send a representative…