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Gaza refugees – are we generous or naive? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: the news from The Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday, August twenty.
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  Speaker 1: It's showtime for Kamala Harris as the Democratic National Convention
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  Speaker 1: kicks off in Chicago with all the razzle, dazzle and
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  Speaker 1: star power you'd expect. First up, Joe Biden and Hillary
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  Speaker 1: Clinton take the stage. We've got live updates from our
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  Speaker 1: correspondents at the convention right now at the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: com dot AU. The coalition will target Chinese voters in
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  Speaker 1: inner city seats to appeal to the giant diaspora with
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  Speaker 1: messages of economic management and being tough on crime. It's
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  Speaker 1: a bid to win back voters who embraced John Howard
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  Speaker 1: that were less enthusiastic about Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton.
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  Speaker 1: That's an exclusive live now at the Australian dot Com
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  Speaker 1: dot a Australia is accepting Ghazan's fleeing the Israel hamas
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  Speaker 1: conflict in numbers that vastly outweigh the United States, United Kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: France and New Zealand today on the front, how the
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  Speaker 1: issue descended into political Rgibarjie and why Labor and the
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  Speaker 1: Coalition are at odds. In the seaside town of Zoeida
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  Speaker 1: in Gaza, locals dig through the rubble of a home
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  Speaker 1: and warehouse building destroyed in an Israeli air strike. In
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  Speaker 1: central Gaza, the young father grieves after report addly being
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  Speaker 1: told of the death of his wife and their newborn twins,
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  Speaker 1: and aid workers in han Unus remove bodies from another
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  Speaker 1: flattened building. The humans suffering in Gaza, pounded by Israel,
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  Speaker 1: totally controlled by the totalitarian regime of Hamas, is unending.
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  Speaker 1: For most Gazans. There is no way out to the south.
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  Speaker 1: Egypt has built a giant wall to keep Palestinians out
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  Speaker 1: and closed its crossing at Rufa. Israel keeps a close
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  Speaker 1: guard on the only other overland route out into Israel,
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  Speaker 1: at the Ares crossing in Gaza's north. There's no escape
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  Speaker 1: by sea either, thanks to Israel's naval blockade along the coast.
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  Speaker 1: In the early months of the Israel Hamas War, Ghazans
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  Speaker 1: were able to leave, and thousands did, fleeing through that
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  Speaker 1: rougher crossing with all their possessions, but where could they go.
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  Speaker 1: At least three thousand, it has emerged, came to Australia
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  Speaker 1: where they had family members or other connections. About half
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  Speaker 1: of those have arrived since October seven last year, when
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  Speaker 1: Hamas conducted a terrorist attack on southern Israel, murdering more
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  Speaker 1: than twelve hundred people and taking one hundreds hostage. Another
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  Speaker 1: seven thousand Garsens have sought to come here but have
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  Speaker 1: been rejected, And today the Australian is revealing figures that
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  Speaker 1: put Australia's intake into some perspective.
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  Speaker 2: That is quite a lot when we look at other
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  Speaker 2: parts of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Ben Packham is the Australian's Defense and Foreign Affairs correspondent.
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  Speaker 1: There's an important distinction here about the way Australia is
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  Speaker 1: handling this. We are issuing visitor visas, not protection or
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  Speaker 1: refugee visas. That means they're not being granted official refugee status,
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  Speaker 1: and it also means they aren't being rejected to all
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  Speaker 1: the tests that determine whether an asylum seeker is a
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  Speaker 1: genuine refugee.
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  Speaker 2: If you look at the US, for example, the US
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  Speaker 2: has accepted seventeen Palestinian refugees since October seven, so just seventeen,
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  Speaker 2: and it has no special entry arrangements for Palestinians other
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  Speaker 2: than extending the visas of Palestinians who were already in
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  Speaker 2: the United States.
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  Speaker 1: By comparison, the UK has issued just one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: sixty eight protection visas. In New Zealand it's two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty four out of about three thousand applications, and
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  Speaker 1: in France two hundred and sixty thousands have been granted
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  Speaker 1: protection visas. Only Belgium comes close to Australia's numbers, with
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  Speaker 1: about two and a half thousand protection visas granted since
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  Speaker 1: January and three thousand, two hundred last year. All of
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  Speaker 1: those nations submit applicants to quite strict biometric criteria, that's
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  Speaker 1: things like photographs and fingerprints, so.
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's a bit of a mixed bag, but certainly
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  Speaker 2: the evidence from other developed countries is that they are
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  Speaker 2: imposing some quite strict requirements on entrance from Gaza.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of noise in immigration policy in Australia
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  Speaker 1: and it's a politically dangerous topic for labor, which has
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  Speaker 1: been smashed by the Coalition for being soft on borders
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  Speaker 1: for many years. But sometimes what gets lost is that
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  Speaker 1: Australia has, by global standards, a hugely generous record.
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  Speaker 3: Australia is a very sympathetic country when it comes to
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  Speaker 3: taking people out of war zones.
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor.
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  Speaker 3: Don't forget that previous Australian governments have taken twelve thousand
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  Speaker 3: people from Syria, we took people from Afghanistan, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people from Afghanistan, and of course during the Taliban
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  Speaker 3: retaking there, we took thousands. Again. That's the first thing.
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  Speaker 3: The second thing is, and this point is made by
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people, why are we taking so many
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  Speaker 3: people when so few nations around the world are doing
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  Speaker 3: the same, And why are not Arab countries taking them?
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  Speaker 3: These are fair and reasonable questions.
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  Speaker 1: His intake had been quietly ticking along until Peter Dutton
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  Speaker 1: was asked about it on Sky News last week.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think people should be coming in from that
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  Speaker 3: war zone at all at the moment. It's not proven
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  Speaker 3: to do so, and I think it puts our national
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  Speaker 3: security at risk.
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  Speaker 1: It kicked off a giant political stink where Dutton was
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  Speaker 1: accused of racism, and Anthony Albinezi got himself tangled up
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  Speaker 1: talking about whether or not the arrivals had been vetted
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  Speaker 1: by ASIO, the National Security Agency.
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  Speaker 3: It is clear that ASIO boss Mike Burgess had said
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  Speaker 3: on the AB a week ago that when there was
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  Speaker 3: a criteria hit from someone seeking a visa to come
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  Speaker 3: into Australia from Gaza, that is coming up on a
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  Speaker 3: basically a wanted list, one that needs put out an alert,
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  Speaker 3: a terrorist alert list. Then ASIO looked at that bloke
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  Speaker 3: if he said he was Joe Bloggs and his name
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  Speaker 3: was on the terror list. ASIO looked. Now what the
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  Speaker 3: Prime Minister was attempting to do was to say that
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  Speaker 3: in all cases ASIO is involved in the process. Is
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  Speaker 3: what he said. He was giving the impression that ASIO
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  Speaker 3: was checking every person. That wasn't true. Mike Burgess made
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  Speaker 3: it clear that that was not true. And then the
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  Speaker 3: worst thing that the Prime Minister did was under pressure,
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  Speaker 3: he misquoted completely took out that key issue of when
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  Speaker 3: there is a criteria hit and he said in the
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  Speaker 3: Parliament this this is a direct quote from Asio's Mike Burgess.
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  Speaker 3: That was wrong. He did mislead the Parliament and that
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  Speaker 3: still needs to be corrected.
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  Speaker 1: One of the challenges in Gaza is establishing anyone's bona fides.
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  Speaker 1: Hamas rules the strip with an iron fist and hasn't
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  Speaker 1: allowed Gazans a free and fair vote since it was
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  Speaker 1: elected in two thousand and six. It runs everything from
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  Speaker 1: the health authority to the media. That means most of
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  Speaker 1: Gaza's population is connected to Hamas in some way by
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  Speaker 1: employment or by sympathy. So how can Australia establish who's
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  Speaker 1: a Hamas sympathizer and who's not.
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  Speaker 3: When those twelve thousand people were brought out from Syria
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  Speaker 3: under the Abbott government and from Afghanistan under the Morrison government,
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  Speaker 3: they were first taken to a third country Jordan, Lebanon
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  Speaker 3: and the Emirates, and there they were processed and given
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  Speaker 3: full security checks using biometric data, US Intelligence BASS and
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  Speaker 3: information from our five Eyes partners. This meant that people
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  Speaker 3: were not coming direct to Australia and then being able
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  Speaker 3: to ab here and apply for permanent status. And two
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  Speaker 3: it gave us time to be able to look through
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  Speaker 3: because when a regime fails, people try to get out.
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  Speaker 3: That is, people who've been working with the regime try
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  Speaker 3: to get out and they try to get out, and
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  Speaker 3: some successfully amongst the refugees. This is a tried and
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  Speaker 3: true method of escaping for people who have been guilty
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  Speaker 3: of crimes and may commit others. So what you have
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  Speaker 3: to do is make sure that if someone says I'm
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  Speaker 3: Joe Blogs, he is in fact Joe Blogs and he
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  Speaker 3: has Joe Bloggs's clean history. That's what the point about
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  Speaker 3: going to third countries and to using biometric data and
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  Speaker 3: up to date data from our Five Eyes intelligence partners Azoboss.
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  Speaker 1: Mike Burgess has said biometric data is of limited value.
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  Speaker 1: If individuals aren't on any databases, what do you compare
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  Speaker 1: them with. Here's Ben Packham.
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  Speaker 2: Now, the government is currently looking at what it can
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  Speaker 2: do because these visitor visas we're talking about, they're three,
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  Speaker 2: six or twelve month visas. At some point they're going
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  Speaker 2: to expire, and so the government is looking for a
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  Speaker 2: more permanent solution. At the moment, we assume that some
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  Speaker 2: will be considered for humanitarian visas, some may be considered
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  Speaker 2: for extended family type arrangements, but it is not clear
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  Speaker 2: how many are in those. Cat A Greece, and obviously
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  Speaker 2: the government is now quite sensitive to these types of
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  Speaker 2: inquiries because they are coming under a lot of political
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  Speaker 2: heat over this issue. So they do want to come
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  Speaker 2: up with a solution, but given the amount of politicking
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  Speaker 2: around this, it is not imminent. I don't think.
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  Speaker 1: So who's being genuine and who's being opportunistic as the
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  Speaker 1: politics play out? That's after this break, So what are
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  Speaker 1: the politics here? Labor is under attack from those who
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  Speaker 1: believe it's failed to criticize Israel for its war on Gaza,
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  Speaker 1: and those who say it's failed to support Israel strongly enough. Domestically,
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  Speaker 1: there are concerns about a rise in anti Semitism and
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  Speaker 1: the danger of Islamophobia. Mike Burgess, the AZIO boss, has
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  Speaker 1: lifted the terror threat level from possible to probable without
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  Speaker 1: citing any threat in particular. Here's Denis Shadahan.
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  Speaker 3: When Peter Dutton said there should be a pause on
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  Speaker 3: people coming in from NASA, he was attacked as a
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  Speaker 3: racist and told you know that he was against Muslims.
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  Speaker 3: The Muslim leadership criticized him, He was accused of racism,
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  Speaker 3: still is being accused of racism, and yet the overall
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  Speaker 3: political influence is that a large sector of the public
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  Speaker 3: will support that view. It is a reasonable question. On
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  Speaker 3: the micro politics, there is no doubt that we have
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  Speaker 3: seen the rise of the Muslim vote movement in Australia.
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  Speaker 3: Since October seven, we have seen a candidate declared in
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  Speaker 3: the seat of the Minister for Immigration, the new Minister Immigration,
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  Speaker 3: Tony Burke. We are seeing real pressure from Muslim voters
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  Speaker 3: on Labor in Western Sydney. Whether at least five seats
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  Speaker 3: could be in danger and so there is always seen
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  Speaker 3: through the prism of potential electoral damage to Labor within
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  Speaker 3: those seats. But overall, and I don't think the Liberals
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  Speaker 3: have got much chance of winning any of those seats.
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  Speaker 3: But the point is overall it is more likely that
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  Speaker 3: the Labor Party will maintain those seats with reduced majorities,
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  Speaker 3: but that the more general question on security and immigration
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  Speaker 3: will allow Peter Dutton to gain back teal seats once
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  Speaker 3: strong Liberal Conservative seats, and that's where we will see
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  Speaker 3: the change, the overall change on the ground at election time.
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  Speaker 3: I think that the Prime Minister is trying to look
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  Speaker 3: after his own areas, specific geographic areas, and also trying
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  Speaker 3: to portray Peter Dutton as a racist. Now that's what's
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  Speaker 3: happening I think the politics will move in total towards
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  Speaker 3: Peter Dutton.
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor, and Ben Packham
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  Speaker 1: is our Foreign affairs and Defense correspondent. You can read
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  Speaker 1: all their reporting and analysis right now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com do AU