Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fowler for raising this issue in the House. Those opposite had given the impression in the media that they were going to raise the issue, but once they got in here they appeared for some reason unwilling to do so. Perhaps I could start with this principle. First of all, as the Prime Minister has made clear, there has been no repatriation. So, for the member for Fowler, when the end of that question refers to the government 'settling people'—the government is not settling people; the government is not involved in settling people.

We have a situation where we have a number of Australian citizens who made a terrible decision, an absolutely dreadful decision, to go off and join others who were involved in what has been described as one of the most horrific organisations the world has seen. And this is not the first time Australian citizens who made that decision have returned. When Australian citizens seek to return to Australia they are able to do so. There have been two times that there were repatriations, one under this government and one under the previous government. But there have also been repeated occasions where people have returned of their own volition. Those opposite seem to have forgotten the number of people who returned to Australia of their own volition in exactly this way while they were in office.

While the discussion has been about women and children who have recently returned, those who returned under those opposite—and this is in their own words, from a question on notice—include 'some who fought for ISIL, a few who had joined other Islamic extremist groups, others who provided support to ISIL', who returned in exactly this way. That's referred to as being part of a group of around 40 people, in answer to a question on notice that those opposite appear to want to forget.

But the thing that is consistent throughout all of this—and this is why I'm glad the member for Fowler has raised it—is that our security agencies are constantly engaged. And every conversation that you would expect that I, as the Minister for Home Affairs, would have with those security intelligence agencies about making sure Australians are safe is, you are guaranteed, happening, and our agencies are working with the professionalism you would expect.

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