James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

We will protect Australians' way of life and restore their standard of living. It is a pity that the answers that were given in response to the questions asked by coalition senators did not reflect such an approach, because we must defend Australian values and we must keep our country safe.

We have a prime minister who once said:

My word is my bond.

But, on national security, Australians are again seeing the opposite. When it comes to keeping Australians safe, as with being transparent, you must be seen to be doing that. You must be transparent about what you're doing, because otherwise Australians will conclude the opposite.

Labor claims it does not want ISIS brides to return to Australia. Yet considerable assistance has clearly been given, including the issuing of passports. We're told that the government is not assisting, yet federal and state agencies have reportedly been meeting for months to manage their return. This is disappointing. It is disappointing that the government of Australia, whose primary KPI is the safety and security of Australians, is not being honest with Australian in relation to the dealings with the ISIS brides.

If Labor truly opposed these returns, it could use existing powers robustly and work with the coalition to strengthen the relevant laws even further if necessary. But instead, most disappointingly, we are seeing secrecy from this government. We saw it in question time today. We saw it in question time yesterday. We see it when ministers do the media. They fail to answer the questions, or they use a collection of words that, while making up grammatically correct sentences, certainly do not come anywhere near answering the questions that have been put to them. That is disappointing because Australians deserve clarity, not contradictions.

These ISIS brides chose to enter these ISIS controlled areas. Islamic State was not a social movement. It wasn't a sub-branch of the CWA. It was a brutal terrorist regime. It treated people who were opposed to the caliphate's life view with horrendous violence. These women chose to enter these areas. No-one forced them to. No-one paid them to. These ISIS supporters did that freely and voluntarily. Indeed, it has been reported that one of them said, before going overseas, that she wanted to make bombs. This is someone who freely, of her own will, decided to go overseas to support a horrible terrorist organisation because she wanted to make bombs—bombs to kill people, bombs to maim people.

Australians who are listening to the Senate today and listening to the answers in response to the questions that were put by coalition senators will be able to clearly determine that, while the questions were pointed and while the questions had a clarity around them, sadly the answers in response to those questions had anything but that. They failed to answer the questions; they failed to provide the information; and, most importantly, they failed to provide security to Australians that their government was doing the right thing to keep Australians safe. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.