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Australia Lawmaker Calls Opposition Leader Racist over Opposition to Gaza Refugees

Palestinians react as they wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis as conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in the northern Gaza Strip August 14, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians react as they wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis as conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in the northern Gaza Strip August 14, 2024. (Reuters)
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Australia Lawmaker Calls Opposition Leader Racist over Opposition to Gaza Refugees

Palestinians react as they wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis as conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in the northern Gaza Strip August 14, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians react as they wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis as conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in the northern Gaza Strip August 14, 2024. (Reuters)

The leader of Australia's main opposition party was told to "stop being racist" by another parliamentarian during a heated discussion on Thursday in which he said that Australia should not take in any refugees from Gaza.

Independent parliamentarian Zali Steggall made the remarks during a speech criticizing center-right Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton for his call this week to bar refugees from Gaza due to the risk they could be Hamas sympathizers.

Interrupted several times by shouts from the opposition benches, Steggall asked to be heard in silence before shouting "stop being racist" towards Dutton.

"These are families that you are seeking to paint that somehow they are all terrorists, that they should all be mistrusted and they are not worthy of humanitarian aid," she said before pausing as Dutton interjected.

"We heard you in silence, you can hear me in silence, stop being racist," she then said.

A representative for Steggall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tensions flared in parliament again shortly afterwards when Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young interrupted a media conference by opposition National Party parliamentarian David Littleproud in which he was defending Dutton's position on Gaza refugees to say: "why don't you say something about the children being slaughtered."

The heated discussions in parliament mirrors how disagreements over Israel's war in Gaza are spilling into society, where the ruling Labor party is caught between those calling for unreserved support for Israel while many others, including Australian Muslims, want a harder line against Israel.

Australia has repeatedly called for a ceasefire but stopped short of recognizing a Palestinian state like Spain, Ireland and Norway.

Dutton reiterated his position again on Thursday, saying the government had brought people to Australia from a war zone without proper checks.

"I'm sure the vast majority of these people are just innocent people fleeing a war zone but our country's best interest is served when we know who is coming here and when we have a proper process to exclude those who are sympathizers of a listed terrorist organization," he said, in a reference to Hamas.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Wednesday all visa applicants were screened by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization.

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North Korea Tour Operators Hopeful Ahead of Country's Reopening

Kim Jong Un (C) has poured huge resources into developing the Samjiyon area, with the vast project including new apartments, hotels and a ski resort. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP
Kim Jong Un (C) has poured huge resources into developing the Samjiyon area, with the vast project including new apartments, hotels and a ski resort. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP
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North Korea Tour Operators Hopeful Ahead of Country's Reopening

Kim Jong Un (C) has poured huge resources into developing the Samjiyon area, with the vast project including new apartments, hotels and a ski resort. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP
Kim Jong Un (C) has poured huge resources into developing the Samjiyon area, with the vast project including new apartments, hotels and a ski resort. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP

A Beijing-based North Korea tour operator expressed hopes of fresh business on Thursday following an unexpected announcement that the country would reopen to foreign tourists this winter.
Koryo Tours said on Wednesday they had received notice from isolated North Korea that tourism to the northeastern city of Samjiyon would resume in December after nearly five years of Covid-triggered closure.
"Our initial reaction is positive of course. It's been a long wait," Koryo Tours general manager Simon Cockerell told AFP on Thursday.
"Demand has been strong throughout the closure so I would expect a decent rebound (in business)," he said, adding "there are a lot of folks who have been anxious and keen" to visit nuclear-armed North Korea since the pandemic.
KTG Tours, also based in China, said on its Facebook page Wednesday that it had been told "tourists will be able to go to Samjiyon (Mt. Paektu area) this winter".
"Exact dates to be confirmed. So far just Samjiyon has been officially confirmed but we think that Pyongyang and other places will open too!" it said.
Samjiyon, near North Korea's mountainous northern border with China, is a gateway city to Mount Paektu, where official narratives say the late supreme leader Kim Jong Il was born.
His son and successor, Kim Jong Un, has poured huge resources into developing the area, with the vast project including new apartments, hotels and a ski resort.
North Korean state media had not mentioned the reopening of the border by mid-afternoon on Thursday.
'Idiosyncratic'
Cockerell told AFP that opening up to tourists in the bitterly cold, remote area in December was unexpected but "a positive step for sure".
"Doing it in the far north in the middle of winter is idiosyncratic, but the DPRK is nothing if not an idiosyncratic place," he said, using the official acronym for North Korea.
"For our company, it hopefully means we can start to fulfil our mandate again which is to offer as many people the chance to go there as possible, to increase engagement and interaction."
North Korea sealed off its borders in early 2020 to protect itself from Covid-19, with even its own nationals prevented from entering for years.
But signs of reopening began in the second half of 2023, with the resumption of international flights allowing stranded nationals to finally return home.
A group of Russian tourists visited in February 2024, at a time when ties between Moscow and Pyongyang were growing closer.
Tourism to the North was limited before the pandemic, with tour companies saying around 5,000 Western tourists visited each year.
US citizens made up about 20 percent of the market before Washington banned travel following the imprisonment and subsequent death of American student Otto Warmbier.
"I'd caution against over-interpreting this opening," Cockerell said. "It's not necessarily a message to the world or anything like that. It's just a slow and small initial opening to restabilize an industry that existed for decades previously."
Koryo Tours warned on its website that, after a hiatus of almost five years, the early days of the tourism restart may not go smoothly.
"For those hoping to visit on one of the sooner tours, we would like to emphasize that things may be a little more chaotic than usual," it said.
But Cockerell remains optimistic. "This is finally a positive piece of news, hopefully to be followed by more of the same," he said.