Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Criminal Code Amendment (Keeping Australia Safe) Bill 2026. The first duty of any government is to keep Australians safe. National security is the first and most solemn priority of any federal government, and it's the foundation upon which our way of life is built. Yet today that foundation is being eroded. It's being eroded by secrecy, contradiction and the dangerous policy of self-managed returns for those who have turned their backs on our country to join the most brutal terrorist regime of our time.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, once told the Australian people, 'My word is my bond,' but, on the matter of national security, we are seeing the exact opposite. For months this Labor government has played a double game. The Prime Minister tells us and tells the public that ISIS sympathisers are not welcome, but at the same time we hear that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is quietly issuing passports. The Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, has told the media that his hands are tied and that he is—ironically and nonsensically—actively doing nothing. Yet we know that federal and state agencies have been meeting for months to manage the return of these individuals. So which is it? Are they unwelcome or are we paving the way for their return? The coalition believes that Australians deserve clarity on this issue, not contradictions, which is exactly why we have introduced this bill. The legislation is a clear and decisive plan to stop the trafficking of terror and restore ministerial accountability to our borders.

Let's be very clear about who it is that we're talking about here. This is the cohort of ISIS sympathisers more commonly referred to in the media as ISIS brides. They are individuals who have willingly, actively chosen to enter and remain in areas controlled by Islamic State. This wasn't a social movement; it was an apocalyptic Islamofascist regime. Security experts have warned us that radicalisation doesn't simply disappear, and, with 18,000 individuals already on the ASIO watchlist, our agencies have told us that they are stretched to their limit. Adding more high-risk returnees to this mix is highly reckless, and it puts our community at grave risk.

Over recent weeks, I have had the honour and privilege of meeting with a number of individuals who are deeply concerned about the prospect of having ISIS sympathisers returned to our shores. When Angus Taylor and I met with members of the Assyrian community in South-West Sydney, we heard the most horrific stories—stories of people being kidnapped and tortured by ISIS operatives. Their lives have moved on here in Australia, but they will bear the scars of those experiences forever. We met with members of the Yazidi community from Wagga Wagga, and we met with an extraordinarily brave young woman named Marteen, who is just 19 years old. She told us about the time she spent in ISIS captivity after being kidnapped at the age of just eight. She told us her story with tears in her eyes, unable to finish her sentences because of the trauma of those memories—the enslavement which was inflicted upon her unwillingly. Hearing her story, you couldn't help but understand why these communities are so rightly alarmed by the prospect of repatriating these so-called ISIS brides. The Assyrian and Yazidi communities have come to Australia to rebuild their lives here, but many of them are now terrified at the thought of what might happen if these people come back. These are people who, when fireworks go off, hide under their beds. They're terrified, they're traumatised, and for some reason this government wants to allow the reliving of the trauma. How can the government provide assurance, given the inconsistent messaging, that ISIS sympathisers returning to Australia won't destroy the lives that these truly beautiful Yazidi people are rebuilding in this country?

Let's be clear that the Albanese government's approach to this situation has been entirely inconsistent. Labor's current policy of self-managed returns has created a very, very dangerous loophole. Allowing third parties—NGOs or private individuals—to auspice the repatriation of people linked to terrorist organisations without any direct authorisation from the Commonwealth is dangerous. National security has been outsourced to intermediaries.

We've seen the consequences of this freelancing approach with Dr Jamal Rifi, a political ally and fundraiser of Minister Burke—such a big ally, I might add, that he attended his election night party and spray-painted Minister Burke's name onto the back of his head. This man recently travelled to Syria carrying dozens of passports for cohorts of ISIS brides—and one male prisoner, I might add. He has himself admitted in the media that he doesn't even know these women or children—he's never met them—let alone the extent of their radicalisation or the threat that they may pose to our safety. That is secondary for him. Well, it's not secondary for us. It's not secondary for the coalition. It should be our priority.