Opposition calls for transparency on visas after Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s boast

The Opposition is calling on Tony Burke to explain how he rejects visas after the border chief revealed he has blocked dozens of visas to protect “social cohesion”.

Mr Burke holds a suite of powerful portfolios in the Albanese government, including home affairs and immigration.

This gives him direct oversight of intelligence and policing concerns, as well as the means to curb foreign threats, such as by knocking back visa applications.

Mr Burke would not be drawn on how many visas he had rejected in an interview with the Australian Financial Review, but said it was “in (the) order” of dozens

But his opposition counterpart Andrew Hastie said on Wednesday he worries Mr Burke is too liberal with his power.

“I want to know what standard Tony Burke is applying,” Mr Hastie told Sky News.

“He’s been making these decisions behind closed doors.

“We’re not actually clear on what the standard is.”

He said he was “more than happy for people who don’t conform to Australian values to be denied a visa, we just want to know what the standard is, and we want it to be applied consistently”.

“Tony Burke is the Minister for Home Affairs, not for double standards, and he needs to become clear about what the standard is,” Mr Hastie said.

With deteriorating social cohesion keeping the terror threat level high, Mr Burke has not hesitated to refuse entry to high-profile figures, including rapper Kanye West and conservative conspiracy theorist Candace Owens – both highly publicised ordeals.

But in a recent interview, Mr Burke revealed he had refused many more that had not reached headlines.

Speaking to the AFR, Mr Burke said he would happily throw away past practices of letting controversial figures in based on the basis of free speech.

“There’s traditionally been a large number of people where the power to refuse was clearly there and in the name of freedom of speech, ministers have said ‘Oh no, let them in’,” he told the paper.

“I could not care less about the freedom of speech argument if I’m in the business of stopping hatred from being imported to Australia.”

Mr Burke caused a stir among free speech absolutists when he denied Ms Owens a visa.

It forced the cancellation of her speaking tour, which she insisted was “about fostering constructive debate on important issues facing the world today”.

But the far-right pundit is an infamous Holocaust denier, and around the time of her refusal a synagogue in Melbourne had been firebombed.

Mr Burke’s decision was welcomed by Jewish groups.

He also sparked criticism by blocking ex-Israeli politician Ayelet Shaked for comments she made in 2014 calling children of terrorists “little snakes”.

She said the families of terrorists “are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads”.

“They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes,” Ms Shaked said.

“They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists.”

Mr Burke said he would not let someone in who spoke like that.

“If someone wanted to come to Australia for a public speaking event, and they were on the record describing Jewish children as reptiles, would I let them in? And the answer was no,” he said.

But on Wednesday, Mr Hastie pointed out that some protesters in the mega pro-Palestine rally in Sydney at the weekend were carrying symbols of designated terrorist groups.

“I just want to know what the standard is so that we can objectively assess each case, not just on the Minister’s desk, but also publicly as well,” he said.

“Because, I mean, we saw the bridge march over the weekend.

“We saw al-Qaeda flags, we saw an ISIS flag, we saw PLO flags.

“There are all sorts of undesirable characters in this country at the moment who are un-Australian in their values.

“And so we just want to know what the standard is and we want to see it applied evenly.”