Australia quickly offered protection to Iranian women footballers who drew global attention. At the same time, new migration laws aim to prevent other Iranian visa holders from even reaching Australia.

We may never know whether Trump’s tweet about the Iranian women’s soccer team had anything to do with how the Australian Government responded. That tweet certainly doesn’t reflect his approach to Iranian asylum seekers more generally.

The recent migration legislation introduced by the Australian government, with full support from the opposition and One Nation, suggests we care about Iranian asylum seekers who have acquired media fame but not for those who have not.

Around the same time that some of the Iranian women’s soccer team had escaped their management team, Trump had tweeted about the whole team that “the US will take them if you won’t”. Media reports suggest our Prime Minister was quickly in touch with Trump to re-assure him Australia had the matter in hand. Immigration Minister Tony Burke was on the scene to quickly sign documents granting them humanitarian stay.

As the rest were leaving an Australian airport, it is reported government officials took the extraordinary step of taking each into a separate room to inquire about their interest in seeking asylum. While most (if not all the others) did not take up the offer, government officials stood ready to grant visas.

The Australian media, including right wing media which is always ready to express outrage at the granting of protection to any Muslim, applauded the Australian Government’s action while arguing Trump had forced their hand. Indeed, many argued the government should have done more – as if the government can force people to seek asylum.

Longstanding Murdoch Islamaphobe Chris Kenny proclaimed:

“The case of the Iranian women soccer team, the brave women who have claimed asylum in Australia, is so important on so many levels, because it shows us what matters in life, in government and in global affairs. Have the courage to proclaim that theocratic Islamist regimes are wrong, simply wrong, they are anathema to our values of freedom and democracy, and they are especially odious for women. As I said last night, this was the only proper response from Australia.”

There are around 12,000 other Iranian citizens currently in Australia also on temporary visas (a mixture of visitor visas, student visas and skilled temporary visas). Some, perhaps many, will also seek asylum in the next few weeks given the circumstances back in Iran.

When significant conflicts such as this one have taken place in the past, Australia has often offered a brief extension of stay for temporary visa holders rather than forcing them to choose between going back to a war zone or seeking asylum. The current politics seems to be that such an approach is not an option which means a surge in asylum applications from Iranians in Australia on temporary visas becomes more likely.

Will Kenny be so vociferous in his support for their asylum claims or will he revert to type on asylum seekers, particularly from Muslim countries? Will he obsess about more thorough vetting and extra security checks that he didn’t ask about for the soccer players?

But the hypocrisy is not confined to Trump and the Murdoch press.

The migration legislation introduced at the same time as the soccer team drama was unfolding is designed to enable the minister to suspend the temporary visas of people who secured these in good faith but haven’t yet travelled to Australia. The legislation gives the immigration minister the power to specify certain cohorts (likely by nationality) whose existing temporary visas will be suspended (en masse, rather than case by case as is usual practice) to prevent travel to Australia.

It is not that the bona fides of these visa holders has changed but that because of the current conflict, some, perhaps many, would also seek asylum.

In other words, the government is concerned that some of these temporary visa holders may do exactly what some of the soccer players did – apply for asylum. The likelihood of the asylum applications being successful would be high given the high grant rate for Iranian asylum seekers. The successful asylum seekers would then take a place in the annual humanitarian program, displacing other people who would have otherwise secured an offshore humanitarian visa.

From a policy perspective, that is not necessarily a problem. The problem is largely political. If there is a large surge in Iranians seeking asylum, the likes of Kenny and various politicians will use that to political advantage. By introducing this legislation, the government can argue it took extraordinary preventative measures to limit the surge in asylum seekers.

One approach for the soccer players on temporary visas who secured global attention and another for those who haven’t!