Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to add my voice to the chorus of opposition that has been heard from around Australia for the government's decision to hastily return ISIS brides and their families here to Australia without proper consultation or planning, or consideration of national security considerations. This isn't a view confined to the opposition. Labor state members in Sydney have expressed their concern. Communities that have migrated here from the Middle East over many decades have expressed their concern at the notion that people who voluntarily left Australia to join the evil that is ISIS would be returned and put back in our community without the proper security considerations. It doesn't really matter who you are—whether you're Chaldean, Syriac, Assyrian, Melchite, Armenian, Yazidis, Turkmens, Shiite, Shabak, Sabeans, Karki, Sunnis who didn't agree—ISIS hated everybody equally. It was a violation against human rights, individual rights and humanity.

Any Westerner who left the safety and peace of a Western country to go and support ISIS, whether they be a woman or a man, is guilty of a crime against humanity. The government has not explained what charges will be laid against people who voluntarily left to go and support such an evil. The people who died, the communities who suffered, the people here in Sydney and Melbourne, need answers from the government about these questions. The government has said nothing. This is national security. It is of deep concern to Australians and the government must answer.