Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Wong. Under section 9 of the Australian Passports Act, emergency or single-issue travel documents can be issued only in circumstances specified by ministerial determination or on a minister's own initiative. Given reports that at least 30 such passports have been issued to facilitate the apparently imminent return to Australia of a group of ISIS brides and their children, can the minister indicate whether she or any other minister authorised those documents and, if so, when?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I make a number of points. The first is Australian citizens are entitled to apply for and, if they meet eligibility requirements, be issued an Australian passport. I also indicate that a passport can only be refused or cancelled on security grounds if a competent authority, which includes a security agency such as ASIO, requests it. No such request was made. I'm not in a position—as you know, Senator—to go to individual cases. As a general point, we are aware, as the Prime Minister has made clear and Minister Burke has made clear, that a number of women and children in Syria are seeking to return to Australia. We have known that for some time. We are not assisting the cohort to return to Australia.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, first supplementary?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, if you didn't authorise the issuing of these passports, who did and when? What role did you have as minister in ensuring passports or travel documents aren't issued to people that should not have them—or was there no role whatsoever?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, that is a question in which you have had no regard to the answer I gave in the primary, so I'll repeat it. Any Australian can apply for and, if they meet eligibility requirements, be issued an Australian passport. A passport can only be refused or cancelled on security grounds if a competent authority—a security agency such as ASIO—requests it. No such request has been made. Again, I'm not going to individual cases, but, in relation to the women and children in Syria that I believe the Senator is referencing, we have known about their potential return for some time, as have previous governments. The government is not assisting this cohort to return to Australia.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, second supplementary?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Especially given that Minister Burke told ABC's Insiders program on 22 February that the government was 'actively making sure we're doing nothing', can you indicate whether the government has taken any specific practical steps at all to prevent these so-called ISIS brides and their children from re-entering Australia?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition in government amended laws in relation to this area. A number of those were struck down, and the laws which are in place are the strongest laws that have been passed through parliament, with bipartisan support after consideration by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and after response to the High Court's various decisions. This is the legal framework that we are operating under. In relation to the capacity to exclude Australian citizens—and I again remind everybody we are discussing Australian citizens—I understand that Minister Burke has indicated publicly that one individual in this cohort has been issued a temporary exclusion order, which was made on advice from security agencies. For further details, I'd refer you to Home Affairs.