Malcolm Turnbull has moved to assert that “nothing has changed” in the government’s approach to resettling 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Australia, after calls from some church leaders and ministers for a significant focus on Christians.
The prime minister indicated on Sunday that Christians would be among the refugees resettled by Australia, but this would be as a consequence of the government’s overarching focus on persecuted minorities, women and children.
And he revealed he was talking almost every day to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, to ensure the smooth implementation of the government’s decision.
A report in the Weekend Australian newspaper took some senior government players by surprise because they thought the policy was being implemented in line with the decision the cabinet made shortly before Tony Abbott was ousted in September. There was a clear cabinet determination under Abbott that the focus would be on women, children and persecuted minorities.
But Saturday’s article suggested the resettlement plans were “in danger of being derailed” and Christian leaders – including the Catholic archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher – had complained of confusion over the immigration department’s selection process.
Guardian Australia understands there had been no red flags within the government that the policy was having difficulties with implementation. It is understood Turnbull, in the lead-up to the cabinet decision on the 12,000 refugees, sought additional information about the groups experiencing the most difficulties in the region.
The deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, had prepared a paper for cabinet which confirmed that the groups facing the most difficulties were the groups ultimately reflected in the announcement.
When the government announced the decision to accept 12,000 refugees, Abbott said: “If you look at the persecuted minorities of the region there are Muslim minorities, Druze, Turkmen, Kurds, there are non-Muslim minorities, Christians, various sorts, Jews, Yazidis, Armenians, so there are persecuted minorities that are Muslim, there are persecuted minorities that are non-Muslim and our focus is on the persecuted minorities who have been displaced and are very unlikely ever to be able to go back to their original homes.”
Turnbull was asked to respond to concerns about the focus of the program when he addressed the media on Sunday on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Malaysia. The prime minister insisted the government had not shifted from its original decision and he was in regular contact with Dutton about the details.
“I’ve been concerned for some time and have been very vocal about my concern for the persecuted minorities in the Middle East, prominent among whom of course are the Christian communities,” Turnbull told reporters.
“Regrettably, the likely consequence of these wars in the Middle East will be a reset order in which there will be a much less welcoming environment for Christians. The regimes in Iraq and Syria, tyrannies though they were, were secular tyrannies – that is to say Christians were not persecuted by reason of being Christians as a general rule.
“The tenor of the times in the Middle East is much less welcoming to minorities like Christians and that is why the focus of the 12,000 intake is on persecuted minorities and women and children. It remains exactly [the same]; nothing has changed. That is exactly what it is, and I discuss it regularly, indeed not every day but most days with the immigration minister, Mr Dutton.”
Some ministers have been more vocal than others in asserting the significant focus on Christians.
Scott Morrison, the treasurer and former immigration minister, said last week he expected the majority of the 12,000 refugees would be Christians “because it is those communities who are at most long-term risk in the Middle East”.
Abbott’s former leader in the Senate, Eric Abetz, said in September that Christians should be “pretty high up on the priority list for resettlement” because they were “the most persecuted group in the world and especially in the Middle East”.
Dutton said last week the government had consistently stated it wanted to prioritise “women and children in particular, but persecuted minorities otherwise – that can include people of Christian faith or Muslim faith, or others who are stuck in a very difficult scenario”.
The immigration minister said the government wanted to identify people who were most at risk and in some cases that would include Christians who were living outside of refugee camps where they did not feel safe.
The questions about the refugee intake come as Abbott forces within the government seek to assert themselves on national security issues in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris.
Abbott backed calls by the Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic for Dutton to be reinstated as a permanent member of the Turnbull cabinet’s national security committee.
Turnbull rebuffed the push on Sunday, saying the committee comprised “a relatively small number of ministers who attend every meeting” but other ministers were invited to attend when required. “The immigration minister is frequently co-opted to the NSC,” he said.
Turnbull pointedly added that he had modelled the cabinet arrangements on those adopted by “on the practices of the government led so successfully by John Howard”.
The prime minister confirmed the committee would meet on Monday, coinciding with the resumption of parliament, but while overseas he had remained in close contact with defence and agency chiefs about the security situation.
He foreshadowed greater regional cooperation and intelligence sharing on terrorism issues after attending the Asean and East Asia summits in Kuala Lumpur which heavily focused on countering violent extremism.
Turnbull praised the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, and the president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, for projecting “a message of authentic, moderate Islam as a counter message to the violent extremism of Daesh and other similar extremist groups”.
