Paul Scarr is a Senator and Shadow Immigration Minister. He’s with the Liberal National Party in Queensland, and he’s with me on the phone. Senator, Good Morning to you. How are you?
Senator Scarr
Good to be with you? Beautiful day here in Brisbane.
Jason Morrison
It always is. You’re lucky. And look, that’s it. I just we talk about, you know, the beauty of this country and its beautiful attributes, and whatever people want to keep it like that. I think immigration is an issue here. Do you understand where I’m going with it, that we have to be very careful who we bring into this country, because we don’t want to add to problems. What do you think?
Senator Scarr
The report, which Jillian Segal has released deals with a whole raft of topics, including universities which you’re referring to, but it also does have some specific recommendations with respect to immigration and how we implement our policies, and that includes screening visa applicants for anti semitic views or conduct, taking a risk based approach to that. It also includes refusing visas and canceling visas for anti semitic conduct and hate rhetoric. So I think those are very important elements of the plan. The other thing which the special envoy Jillian Segal, says is that she will be looking to provide training through her office for staff of the Department of Home Affairs and for the staff of the Department of Home Affairs who are actually processing visa applications. So issues in relation to our Immigration system, how policies are applied in practice, how visas are issued, will actually form part of the work plan under the report, which has been released by the envoy.
Jason Morrison
Yeah, but let’s get a little bit fair dinkum for a second. How do you screen somebody who shows up to your country and and, you know, they are of a background that has historically had issues with Jews. How do you screen them to make sure that they’re going to be the right kind of person? I mean, we can say what we like. I mean, we could. You could fool any bureaucrat if you say the right thing.
Senator Scarr
I think this is where it does come back to the training, and I think the research, which is done in relation to applicants for visas, looking at their social media accounts, seeing what sort of rhetoric they’re engaging in online, I think all of those things are incredibly important.
Jason Morrison
And we don’t do that now?
Senator Scarr
Well, it’s, it’s a concern which has been raised in this report. And Jillian Segal has taken quite a bit of time to produce this report. She’s had discussions with various departments, and she’s made these very strong recommendations in relation [host interrupted)
Jason Morrison
You know, you’ve been around for a while. Do we seriously not look at people, people’s character, properly before we give them a visa to come here, or if it’s if you tick the box and you say the right things you get in the door?
Senator Scarr
Well, obviously there’s an issue. There’s obviously an issue, given that these strong recommendations have been made, and I really do hope that the government implements these recommendations and puts in place the right practices to safeguard all Australians. [host interrupted)
Jason Morrison
And it is. It’s a compatibility argument this, you know, surely you tourism is one thing. People who come here as tourists and want to check out and take a photo of the family in front of our bridge. You know, that’s that’s that I’m talking about people who come to live here. Surely, the compatibility with the mainstream Australian culture that we as a nation want to be that is peaceful and harmonious. Surely, you look and you say, we want to be certain that whoever’s coming through does not subscribe to any of these, you know, hatred in the heart views. And then we’ll go a step further. And if we suspect that they do, we either say you’re not coming here, or we make them understand that their stay here is tentative until we can be certain that you are not going to go and join protests and wave flags and carry off and let flags on and chant about gassing Jews in the street. Surely,.
Senator Scarr
Every single person who comes to this country should share our Australian values, and they include foundational values about each group in our society, including our Jewish community, being able to live in peace and security and safety.Everyone who comes to this country must respect our laws, and those include that includes the laws that were have been passed just recently in the Australian Parliament with respect to offenses relating to threatening and advocating violence against individuals places of worship. Etc. Every single person that has the opportunity to come to our beautiful country should share our values.
Jason Morrison
So did we do the wrong thing when we, en masse, brought in 1000s of people from Gaza who possibly were or may not have been, but good chance were associated with aspects of Hamas? Did we do the wrong thing for the nation?
Senator Scarr
In my view, you’ve got to look at each person as an individual, and every single person coming to this country should be the subject of appropriate security screening processes to make sure that they’re not going to they’re not going to attack their presence in this country is not going to be negative in terms of social cohesion, and that requires every single person who’s coming to our country to go through a risk based assessment, and that is one of the very strong recommendations in the report that was released yesterday.
Jason Morrison
I would have thought that would be the minimum, and that should have been happening 20 years ago, not starting today.
Senator Scarr
I think it’s very important. And look, can I just say this? I met members of the East Melbourne Jewish synagogue in Melbourne on Tuesday, and what the parents of children are saying is absolutely heartbroken, heartbreaking. When they drop their kids off at school, they have to go through armed guards, armed guards at their schools. [host interrupted)
Jason Morrison
I have friends who had their little kids, Jewish kids abused and had hail Hitlers and everything like that. It’s happened. It’s going it’s going on in Sydney, and it’s still going on in Sydney. And these poor little kids who, I mean, they’re babies and they’re they’re observing their religion, because it’s the time of the year when they are, and most parents choose not to have their kids doing but they are wearing religious symbols going to school, and they’ve got some a hole going past, yelling out Hail Hitler to them.
Senator Scarr
Every single person in this country should be able to display their religious symbols in public without fear of persecution, without fear of harassment, without fear of vilification. That’s the Australia. [host interrupted)
Jason Morrison
I think that’s our problem, actually, that they can’t, and we know and and if you don’t know it, you were all kidding ourselves. You can’t, and that’s our problem. Thank you for coming on this morning.
Senator Scarr
Thanks very much.
