Angus Taylor has suggested Australian children remaining in a Syrian detention camp are “ISIS sympathizers”, as the Liberal Party steps up its rhetoric against the families of dead or imprisoned Islamic State fighters.
The opposition leader also scolded a member of the press for trying to force his answer on why the group of 23 children and 11 women should be the responsibility of another country.
“You’re either an activist or a journalist, you need to decide who you are,” Taylor said.
At a combative press conference before question time on Monday afternoon, a reporter asked Taylor: “By calling them ISIS sympathizers, do you count the 20 or so children in that group as ISIS sympathizers as well?”
“They are ISIS sympathizers. Let us be clear that this is a group that has gone to the Middle East to support ISIS… there is no ambiguity about that,” the opposition leader said.
“We should close the door on ISIS sympathizers. We should have tests based on values and beliefs about who comes into this country and those who believe in this ideology, the ISIS ideology, are not welcome in this country.”
The comments came as shadow home secretary Jonathon Duniam described the cohort of under-18s as “so-called children”.
The group of 34 women and children – wives and children of murdered or imprisoned IS fighters – continue to live in al-Roj detention camp in northeastern Syria, where squalid conditions are described as “dangerous to life.”
Some of the children, all Australian citizens, were born in the countryside and never left it.
The Guardian spoke to several young children at the camp last week, including six-year-old Layla, an Australian girl born at the camp who imagined Australia as a place with “an ice cream shop” and where Bluey and Bingo live.
Duniam said it was important to have compassion for children, but suggested, without providing evidence, that many were closer to adulthood.
“But that doesn’t mean we should sacrifice national security, and right now, I don’t know how many of that cohort, the so-called children, are under 17 years old,” Duniam said.
“If people think this is a group of two- and three-year-olds who are still learning to walk and talk, this is not the cohort we’re talking about. These kids are all different ages and the government doesn’t know what kind of risk they present.”
Under the Passport Law, citizens have the right to a passport, but there are some exemptions for people who have an active arrest warrant against them or when someone could “harm” the security of the country.
A woman within the group was given a temporary exclusion order in February, banning her from entering Australia for up to two years.
The Albanian government has insisted it is not actively assisting the group’s repatriation to Australia, but admitted there are few avenues available to prevent the group from returning.
The Coalition has said it will introduce a bill to make it a crime to provide assistance to repatriate people involved in terrorist organizations without prior approval.
Greens senator David Shoebridge criticized Taylor for using children as “political pawns”.
“When Angus Taylor comes here as the leader of a major political party in this country… and calls her a terrorist sympathizer, people realize that,” he said.
“You know a six-year-old girl, don’t you, and it doesn’t do her any good to delve into those moral libraries and try to turn children into weapons in a detention camp.
“But when Angus Taylor tries to use these children as political pawns, he degrades politics. He degrades his party and he degrades himself.”
