Dutton Plans to Deport Noncitizens Over Past Antisemitic Conduct

“Dutton has been one of the strongest voices in our country on antisemitism, and he is not ashamed to say that he unequivocally supports Israel,” said Sky News Antisemitism Summit cohost Sharri Markson, as she was about to interview the Liberal leader. “He even visited Israel and met with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

“Dutton has been unwavering in his fight against the Albanese government’s hostility to the Jewish state in forums like the United Nations, and he has advocated for stronger laws to combat antisemitism,” the journalist continued.

“This isn’t a case of politicising the issue, this is just because it is the reform that we desperately need in this country.”

Liberal opposition leader Peter Dutton was greeted with a standing ovation as he made his way to the stage at Bondi Junction’s Central Synagogue on 19 February 2025, which came from the same crowd that had earlier heckled attorney general Mark Dreyfus, as he took the stand, despite his Labor government having spent the last 17 months bending over backwards to appease the Israel Lobby.

A key theme running through the four-hour-long summit was that hate speech towards Israel and Jewish people had been allowed to fester in our country over the initial 12 months of the heinous genocide the Israeli state has been perpetrating against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, and as Markson suggested this scenario to the potential next PM, he agreed wholeheartedly.

Underlying this idea was the subtle notion hinted at by many summit speaker that involved the pro-Palestinian antigenocide protests of the last 17 months being considered some key examples of antisemitism, which relies on the conflation of political criticism of Israel with Jewish prejudice.

Yet, the most shocking aspect of the “Q&A with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton” was when the former home affairs minister made certain that if he’s elected to top office, antisemitism will become a ground within the Migration Act character test that would warrant deportation, and such a reform would apply retrospectively to October 2023.

Antisemitic deportation drive

“Do you think the Migration Act should be amended so that antisemitic conduct is grounds to refuse a new visa,” Markson asked the potential next prime minister, straight after he’d been lamenting the antisemitism crisis in the country to the point of tearing up.

“Yes, without question,” replied Dutton. “We’ve announced that we will tighten up section 501.”

“I want to send a very clear message to people who hate us, hate our country, hate Jewish people, hate other segments of our society, that under a government that I lead, they will have no place in this country,” the Liberal leader made clear.

“We will reform the migration program,” he continued. “When I was immigration minister, we deported about 6,000 people: bikies, people who had sexual assaults against children, people who had committed the most heinous offences, and it sent a message”.

Section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) contains a character test that if a noncitizen fails, a visa can be refused or revoked. This law requires the automatic deportation of noncitizens, who have been convicted and sentenced to at least 12 months imprisonment.

The 12 months or more of sentences can be achieved via one or multiple sentences, and this includes suspended sentences or court-imposed time spent in residential drug rehabilitation or closed mental health clinics.

But an individual can fail the 501 character test in other ways, which include being convicted in immigration detention, being a member of a criminal organisation, involvement in people trafficking or an atrocity crime, general conduct revealing a person is “not of good character”, as well as whether a person might engage in crime, vilification, harassment, incite discord or pose a danger.

Dutton appears to be suggesting that he will insert antisemitic behaviour into section 501, which could likely lead to deportation based on antisemitic conduct itself, without any accompanying conviction.

The potential next PM added that the Coalition has also announced that the insertion of antisemitism into the section 501 character test “will be retrospective back to the 7th of October, so people know that they will be captured by the law for the actions they are committing today, and have committed over the course of the last 17 months.”

This warning suggests that Dutton might not only consider turfing out those committing the actual antisemitic vandalism crimes that triggered the summit, but any future law might capture activist noncitizens involved in the street protest actions, as part of the broader Free Palestinian movement.

Mass NZ deportations

In his time as immigration minister, Scott Morrison oversaw the passing of amendments in late 2014 that tightened the character test, so that the previous requirement to deport noncitizens with multiple sentences amounting to over 24 months gaol time, a policy the United Nations had already condemned, was altered so now it’s triggered by multiple sentences amounting to 12 months.

This led to the mass deportation of noncitizens, about 7,000 over the seven years following the amendment. However, the largest cohort that this deportation drive impacted was New Zealand-born Australian residents. Often these New Zealanders had lived most of their lives here and were returned to a country where they had no real links. Often Australian families were torn apart.

According to Home Affairs, in December last year the largest cohort of noncitizens held in onshore immigration detention centres were New Zealanders. In fact, the NZ-born have been at the top of the list of the largest cohorts in immigration centres since 2016. And as the list only features the top nine distinct nationalities, prior to the 2014 changes, New Zealanders didn’t even rate a mention.

A warning to genocide survivors

“So, when you say retrospectively, that means that, say, some of the nearly 3,000 visas issued, many of them to Gazans, if those people are here spreading antisemitic hatred, you’d cancel their visas?” Markson then asked, as she continued to interview Dutton.

“Yes, if people are acting outside of the conditions of their visa, and they are acting outside of the laws of Australia, then they will be treated equally to everyone else, and the law needs to be enforced,” replied Dutton. 

“The law and provisions are there at the moment for the government to act, for the attorney general to act, but there is no will.”

However, as the pair sat before the audience at the summit, no one rose any issue with the questioning and deliberating upon whether people, who were provided visas to assist in fleeing an ongoing genocide, should be allowed to stay in this country or whether they should be deported and returned back to the site of the ongoing mass slaughter and starvation.

“There needs to be a review, and we’ve committed ourselves to that,” Dutton continued, “and I hope that it can send a clear message that even in this period now, from this day until the election is held, if we are able to form government, then their actions will be captured under that provision.”

“And those people who stood up on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to spew their bile and their hate, those people will be subject to the same provision,” the potential next prime minister warned.