Peter Dutton says Australia should not accept Palestinians from Gaza due to ‘national security risk’

Peter Dutton: ‘I don’t think people [Palestinians] should be coming in from that war zone [Gaza] at all at the moment. It’s not prudent to do so and I think it puts our national security at risk.’ Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Peter Dutton has escalated the Coalition’s rhetoric against Palestinians fleeing the Gaza war zone, claiming that none should be allowed to Australia “at the moment” due to an unspecified “national security risk”.

The comments from the opposition leader on Wednesday contradict the assessment by the Asio spy chief, Mike Burgess, that rhetorical support for Hamas should not be an automatic bar to Palestinians receiving visas.