Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson claimed this week that Burke might take a softer approach to Palestinian visa claims due to pressure fromMuslim groups frustrated with Labor’s level of support for Palestine.

Burke on Tuesday responded:“It’s an idiotic statement and I’ll treat lies with the contempt they deserve.”

The previous Coalition government granted more than 500 visas a week to Syrians fleeing the war-torn country,with more than 12,500 permanent visas granted in total. It also approved 5000 temporary visas for Afghans when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan and Western troops departed the country in August 2021.

Weeks of talks about the permanent visas took place before Burke was handed the new portfolios in a cabinet shake-up announced on Sunday.

The sources said the new rules would apply to the approximately 1300 Palestinians already in Australia. The Greens are pushing to bring in many more,however,the lobbying of some rights groups has shifted to improving the circumstances of those already in Australia due to the difficulty of getting people out of Gaza.

The Human Rights Law Centre,Refugee Council of Australia and other groups have complained the visitor visa is a bad fit because it requires Palestinians to prove they want to return to Gaza,which is still under attack from Israel. Hundreds of Palestinians in Australia have been applying for protection visas when their three-month visitor visas expire. Ukrainians were also granted visitor visas.

Palestine Australia Relief and Action Foundation founder Rasha Abbas said Australia had an honourable track record in responding to humanitarian crises.

“Members of this group don’t leave Palestine lightly and would love to go back. But while there is an ongoing war,a genocide really,then we need to do what is right,” she said.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and other agencies are helping dozens of Palestinian families afford food and heating.

The Human Rights Law Centre’s legal director,Sanmati Verma,said forcing Palestinians to seek family-sponsored visitor visas meant they risked becoming undocumented migrants once their visa expired.

“These[more permanent] pathways were created for people fleeing conflict in Ukraine and Afghanistan;they should have been made available to people from Palestine,” she said. “This is a dereliction of duty.”

The Palestine Australia Relief and Action Foundation announced late last week it had received part of a $2.6 million funding boost to help new arrivals. Palestinian support groups have been frustrated in recent months by what they perceive to be Labor’s intent to balance any funding with comparable investment in non-Arab or Jewish groups.

“Anyone who has arrived in Australia from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is not limited to one visa pathway,” a Home Affairs Department spokesman said.

Hamas led a series of attacks on October 7,killing 1200 people in Israel and abducting 250. In its campaign since,Israel has killed more than 39,363 Palestinians and wounded more than 90,900,according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

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