Opposition spokeswoman for foreign affairs Michaelia Cash has slammed the government’s decision to return the wives and children of Islamic State (IS or ISIS) fighters to Australia from Syria.
It was revealed last week that a group of six women and children had smuggled themselves out of Syria and returned to Australia despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denying earlier reports that a cohort was set to return home by the end of the year.
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“Mr Albanese told the Australian people that the ISIS brides were not returning to Australia, and we now know that they have and instead of providing answers at estimates yesterday, the government provided silence. Now they’re treating the Australian people like fools. These are women who left Australia to join what is regarded as probably one of the most disgraceful and barbaric terrorist organisations that murdered, raped and then killed women, men and children, and the government won’t even provide Australians with the most basic advances…
“How many ISIS brides are back in Australia? What assessments did your government do before they arrived back in Australia? What monitoring conditions are in place in relation to them. But more than that, what is your government doing to keep Australians safe? Australians want leadership, not excuses. They want answers, not silence. And everybody should be asking themselves this morning what is the Albanese government hiding?” Cash asked on Seven’s Sunrise this morning.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who was representing Albanese at Senate estimate hearings yesterday, and officials from the prime minister’s department repeatedly took questions on notice, including about when government briefings were provided about the issue and why Albanese had denied the initial reports, prompting accusations from Cash of a “cover-up” by the government.
The government maintains that it has provided no repatriation assistance to any of the returned citizens.
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