Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Well, the cruelty that is on display from the coalition and One Nation in relation to the Criminal Code Amendment (Keeping Australia Safe) Bill 2026 and the hypocrisy of the Labor government: the women and children who are left stranded in Syria, many of whom were trafficked and coerced as young women, as children themselves, have been left stranded now because of a total lack of courage and compassion. What a stark difference from the leadership of even somebody like Scott Morrison, who showed compassion to those who needed to come home after being left in the war-torn country. It beggars belief, that I'm standing here today to point out that Scott Morrison had more compassion and courage on the issue of human rights and protecting women and children than our current prime minister does! It just beggars belief.

Anthony Albanese said that these children made their own beds. Let me remind the Prime Minister that some of these children are four or five years old. Even if they were here in Australia they couldn't make their own beds. They are children. What has happened to our humanity? The stories of these women and their children over the past number of years—one of these mothers was 14 years old when she was trafficked to Syria, forced into marriage. The hypocrisy of the conservatives on this side of the chamber: they go on and on about extremism, about how extremists treat women, demean women, coerce women. And now, the very women they purport to care about they are leaving for dead, politicising them and using them as political footballs.

I'm not going to sit in this chamber and be lectured to with this false outrage of care, compassion or morality. You're a bunch of hypocrites—a bunch of misogynist hypocrites—and you don't give two damns about the rights of these children, innocent kids. One of the things that makes this country a great country and a place where we proudly, on the international stage, know it's the best country on Earth is the value of a fair go, of treating people equally, of looking after each other, of looking after our mates—but only when it suits you, it seems, on the conservative side. If there's a political point to be made or if there's somebody to punch down on in order to suck up to somebody else, the conservative side of politics just takes it; they can't help themselves.

The rank hypocrisy reeks in this place. It has all week. It has all fortnight, whether it's talking about wringing your hands about the impacts of what the war in the Middle East has meant for petrol prices while backing the slaughter and the bloody carelessness of your mate Donald Trump who started the damn thing or pretending that you care about Iranian women, when, for years, you have left them locked up, rotting in immigration detention—the very same women and young girls who fled this horrible, misogynistic, terrifying regime.

Now we see you doing exactly the same thing with the very women that you say should have been protected here in Australia by Australian law and by Australian values, children who were trafficked and coerced. Now you're leaving them for dead. My advice to those women and children in Syria: join a soccer team. Form a soccer team because maybe then the Prime Minister will care about you. Maybe then the Leader of the Opposition will think that you're good enough to come home. It is revolting—human rights for some, rule of law for some. But, if you're weak enough, you're vulnerable enough and you're able to be punched down upon without having anyone speak up for you, then you're fair game. If you're a young woman who's had a child in a refugee camp after being trafficked and coerced by a misogynistic regime, you're left for dead.

This is not who we are as Australians. These are innocent children, and you want to make political points and use the lives of these kids and these women for your own political pointscoring in a race to the bottom on racism and immigration in this country. And who's leading the charge on all of this? One Nation and Pauline Hanson, of course—the chief racist of all. Where is the courage to stare this rubbish down and say, 'This is not who we are'? Rather than doing that, we have you trotting along behind, hoping that no-one points out the hypocrisy, the inconsistencies and the inhumanity of it all.

This bill is only about rank politics. It's nothing about protecting Australians, because these women, these children, are Australians. They are Australians. They've got Australian passports. They were used and abused by the men who forced them to go to Syria, and it is now time that we allowed them to come home. These kids do not deserve to be part of your political games, so we'll be voting against this racist, rubbish piece of legislation. Using innocent children for your race-baiting is as low as you can get, and the whole thing should be knocked off.