“Because you have sympathy with the terrorist group[Hamas] doesn’t mean to say that you will commit violence against someone,” Richardson said.

The government is preparing to announce new avenues to permanent residency for 1300 Palestinians,some of whom are struggling to make ends meet as their temporary visas block them from work and social security.

The Coalition has accused the government of not applying tough enough tests to those fleeing the war in Gaza,suggesting that sympathy for Hamas should rule people out of receiving an Australian visa.

“How can they possibly assure themselves there is not one Hamas supporter among them?” Opposition home affairs spokesmanJames Paterson said in February of Palestinians fleeing to Australia from Gaza.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton last week said that “you can’t be taking people out of a war zone” and insisted that Palestinian visa applicants be subject to biometric testing.

Burgess suggested on Sunday that biometric testing of visa applicants would be of no assistance to security agencies unless they were already registered in an Australian database.

“The critical point is:there are security checks,” he said.

“There are criteria by which people are referred to my service for review and when they are,we deal with that effectively.”

Burgess said that “politicians have to be care careful about their robust political debate” in an increasingly febrile and contentious climate.

Burgess said it was “unhelpful” for Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce to recently compare ballot papers to “bullets” at an anti-wind farm rally,adding that comments from Iran’s ambassador to Australia about wiping Israel off the map were a “classic terrible example of inappropriate,unacceptable language that can actually drive violence in our society”.

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