The Albanese Government has blocked a Coalition bill that would make it a criminal offence to help Islamic State-linked families return to Australia.
The federal opposition sought to introduce legislation that would punish anyone who assists the so-called ‘ISIS brides’ to return to Australia with up to 10 years’ jail.
But the entire Labor Party blocked the bill from being debated or introduced to parliament on Tuesday afternoon, with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke branding the proposal ‘the shoddiest piece of legislation’ ever brought before the chamber.
Some 34 women and children linked to Australians who travelled to the Middle East to fight for the militant group have been trying for days to travel home from a Syrian camp.
While one person from the group has been issued a two-year temporary exclusion order barring their return, other members of the so-called ‘ISIS bride’ cohort have been granted Australian passports as they are citizens.
Burke said even flight attendants could face prosecution under the Coalition’s proposed bill.
‘This would criminalise the pilots of the commercial plane that flew them back. This would criminalise… the baggage handlers,’ Burke said.
Liberal leader Angus Taylor, who introduced the bill, said more needed to be done to ensure members of the cohort were unable to return to Australia.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke (pictured) launched a fierce attack on the bill, describing it as ‘the shoddiest piece of legislation’ ever brought before Parliament
34 Australian women and children, including ‘ISIS brides’ have attempted to return to Australia
‘We want to shut the door on returning ISIS sympathisers. Shut the door on Islamic extremism – the bill is a test for the Prime Minister.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously said the proposal was hypocritical, given that under the former Coalition government, four women and 11 children were allowed to return to Australia in 2022, and eight orphaned children were repatriated from Syria in 2019.
‘They don’t have serious plans. If they did, they wouldn’t have allowed more than 40 people to come, including fighters, on their watch when they were in government,’ he said.
‘We, of course, have advice, but it’s the same advice that, frankly, the coalition got … which is why the laws that are in place are the laws put there by the coalition.
‘Our position is we’re not repatriating people and we’re not providing assistance.’
Albanese said the cohort were entitled to enter the country because they are Australian citizens, but has avoided questions about whether he or his ministers attempted to speed up the issuing of passports.
The Coalition has been critical of Western Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi, who has been attempting to repatriate the women and children from the Al-Roj detention camp in north-east Syria, and personally delivered their passports.
Rifi is a close friend of Home Affairs minister Tony Burke.
The group has been living in the Kurdish-run camp since 2019, with the GP only able to make contact with them sporadically using smuggled phones.
‘They’re on the edge of the desert. During the winter it’s extremely cold. During the summer, it’s extremely hot, and there are no greenery, nothing whatsoever. It’s just dust and wind,’ Dr Rifi said.
Dr Rifi argued that enough time had passed to bring the 34 citizens back to Australia.
‘All the security experts are saying it is safer for them to be in Australia and monitored by all security agencies, rather than left there where nobody can monitor them,’ he said.
Burke confirmed the 11 ISIS brides had been issued Australian passports, but maintained the government was not ‘conducting repatriation’ for them or taking part in Dr Rifi’s private efforts.
Greens home affairs spokesperson David Shoebridge slammed the coalition for proposing non-government organisations such as Save the Children Australia be criminalised for helping Australians return home.
‘The idea that any serious Australian political party would make it a crime for Australians to try and help Australian children and bring them back to safety is a remarkable low, even in the current climate on the immigration debate,’ the senator told ABC Radio.
