Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

One Nation, unsurprisingly, supports the Criminal Code Amendment (Keeping Australia Safe) Bill 2026. Australians are outraged at the way the Albanese Labor government has conducted itself in repatriating ISIS terrorists. Let's be clear. That is what these ISIS brides are. 'Brides' is a lovely euphemism for what is actually Australians aiding and abetting ISIS, one of the most evil terrorist organisations in history. Aiding and abetting might have been making a packed lunch for their terrorist husband or maybe packing a few rounds of ammo. Who knows? But one thing is sure. They, at a minimum, made sure that murderers, rapists and worse had everything that they needed. If you fly to the other side of the world into a declared area to join these vile terrorists, you are as much a terrorist as they are. At that point, you have declared your allegiance to an enemy of Australia, and we do not want you back. You have thrown your lot in with the rapists, murderers, child traffickers and paedophiles. Stay there. You have forfeited your right to this great country.

Labor's response to these faint-of-heart terrorists has, sadly, made this bill necessary. Those that assist known terrorists in returning to our country must be held to account. There is never a good reason to repatriate those who have been engaged in terror. They are not fit or safe to live amongst the Australian people, and we don't want the taxpayer footing the bill for a lifetime in prison. The obvious solution is: don't bring them back. It costs anywhere from $120,000 to $200,000 a year to keep a prisoner in a maximum security facility. Each of these repatriated terrorists would cost up to $10 million if they spent the rest of their lives in prison. It is an indictment of this hopeless Labor government that this bill is necessary, but the people of Australia were not able to rely on the government's protection. Labor repeated over and over that there was no assistance being provided to these terrorists. What a crock. The idea that, if somebody does their own paperwork, the government is therefore not providing assistance is laughable.

The Labor government instead relied on third parties to do their dirty work. Save the Children Australia, Dr Jamal Rifi, a raft of lawyers—all assisting this Labor government in the deception of the Australian people. We cannot have these situations where our government are pretending to the public that they are doing one thing, while using third parties to carry out their covert objectives. It should have been obvious to Labor that these activists working to bring back terrorists from a designated area were working against the best interests of Australia. So what did they do to protect Australians from these activists? Nothing. These amendments would make it criminal for Labor to use third parties to carry out their underhanded support of these terrorists. Instead, the minister, who as we know is working very hard not to offend his electorate, will have to come out and provide explicit written, explicit permission.

Labor, at least tell us what you're up to. Australians have legitimate questions. Since we know that the Albanese Labor government had full knowledge of these repatriations and have been actively assisting them, let's have the rest of the detail. Where are they going to resettle? Which community should be put on notice that Labor is allowing radical Islamic terrorists to come to their neighbourhood? What are they going to cost the Australian public? Will these terrorists be entitled to benefits? I can't imagine these people have acquired any marketable skills while they were packing lunches for their ISIS husbands. How does the government suppose that they will support themselves and their children? Is that burden to fall on the Australian taxpayers, the very people these women renounced and fought against? Now that they have had enough, now that they know about the horrors and deprivation of this murderous ideology, they want to come back. It's too late for that.

Perhaps, instead, these ISIS supporters will be rightfully arrested and prosecuted. Under section 102.3 of the Criminal Code Act 1995, knowingly being a member of a listed terrorist organisation is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment. Is that the plan—to let these women in, charge them for being members of a terrorist organisation and, once again, have the taxpayers foot the bill? What will you be doing with the children while you have their mothers incarcerated? I can't imagine a more sure-fire way to make bitter, vengeful threats to Australian security.

Under Labor, all of these questions have been left unanswered. The Australian people have been left in the dark, with questions they are not getting answers to. We shouldn't have to watch our politicians to make sure they aren't sneaking in terrorists. We shouldn't have to take away their cloaks and daggers. It is not the sign of a functioning political system when the criminalisation of government co-conspirators is necessary to keep the country safe. Labor's priorities are completely backwards: terrorists first, Australians last. It is sad that this bill is necessary, but, to keep Australians safe from this Labor government, One Nation will support it.