The Albanese Government must immediately make a decision to either block or manage the return of the ISIS Brides cohort from coming back to Australia.
Its policy of self-managed returns, or ‘actively doing nothing’, as Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has stated, is an abdication of their responsibility to Australians to make the hard decisions in our national interest.
The Government must be transparent about the whether any checks have been carried out on the whole ISIS Brides cohort since the last reported check four years ago, leading to only one individual being given a Temporary Exclusion Order. They must clearly state whether they can rule out further radicalisation from this cohort that have been living amongst ISIS radicals in Syria. If they cannot, then they are putting our community safety and national security at risk.
Given a group are reportedly arriving back to Australia imminently, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration Jonno Duniam says the Government must act now.
“The Albanese Government has a responsibility to make the hard decisions and to act in our national interest,” Senator Duniam said.
“They must be up front on whether any individuals are at risk of radicalisation. If they cannot do this, they must block their return.”
“These are individuals who chose to abandon Australia, our values of freedom and opportunity for all, to align themselves with a terrorist organisation.”
“If they have not done security checks over the last four years yet issued them passports, it indicates tacit approval of terrorist sympathisers to come back. Where is the right of Australians to be protected?”
While reports of individuals currently in Damascus demand urgent attention, Minister Tony Burke must also come clean on how he intends to deal with the broader cohort.
“In addition to the group reportedly on their way from Syria, the Coalition understands that there may be at least another dozen ISIS Brides and dependants still overseas. The Government must urgently clarify how many are still out there, what their status is and explain to Australians what its plan is to handle them,” Senator Duniam said.
“Australians deserve to know whether these individuals are being handled in a controlled and transparent way, or whether the Government will continue to allow external actors like Tony Burke’s campaign manager, Dr Jamal Rifi, to effectively dictate our foreign policy decisions by bringing back terrorist sympathisers to Australia.”
“Tony Burke is the Minister. He says he doesn’t want them here, but can stop them from coming back. Therefore, he must act in our national interest by either blocking their return, or be front up with Australians and explain why he is letting them back in.”
“If it is the case that they will allow them into Australia, what are they going to do to support communities where these people will reside in? No one wants to live next door to an ISIS family.”
“Tony Burke’s approach of self-managed returns is unsafe and not aligned with community expectations. Labor has no plan, but must now commit. This evasiveness and indecision cannot continue.”
“Kicking the can down the road is not a strategy, it’s not a policy; it’s a cop out.”
The Coalition put forward solutions to formalise who can and can’t deal with repatriations of individuals from terrorist areas through our Criminal Code Amendment (Keeping Australia Safe) Bill 2026. The Government voted with the Greens to block this.
It’s time for the Government to put our community safety and national security first.