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February 26, 2026
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
SENATOR FOR VICTORIA
TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW
2GB BREAKFAST
Thursday, 26 February 2026
Topics: Labor should stop ISIS brides returning to Australia
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………
BEN FORDHAM: As we reported earlier, the Australian Federal Police have launched an investigation into one Islamic State bride, Kirstie Rosse-Emily, the 31-year-old ISIS bride who once told her former housemate, I want to go and make bombs. So the AFP has now contacted the former flatmate known as Sara. Her revelation to Daily Mail Australia has authorities concerned. And Sara says she'll stand up in court and testify if that's what it takes to keep Kirsty Rosse-Emily out of the country. And her own father has raised concerns about her return. He says her claims of being tricked into moving to Syria are BS. He says his daughter is lying. But the Federal Government still wants to let her in. Senator James Paterson is the Shadow Minister for Defence. He joins us now. Senator, good morning.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Good morning.
FORDHAM: It's hard to know where to start, but I want to kick off first of all with the AFP investigation. They're now looking into one ISIS bride. Our listeners are saying, what about the rest?
PATERSON: Well, exactly right, Ben. It is welcome they're making investigations into one of the brides, but frankly they should be investigating all of them. These are people who voluntarily left our country, a peaceful, prosperous, stable, liberal democracy to go and join what they thought was going to be an Islamist caliphate, an ISIS caliphate, that tortured and murdered and raped people of ethnic and religious minorities underneath their control and was engaged in some of the most horrific terrorism the world has ever seen. Now let's remember this person who's now under investigation by the AFP, according to media reports, the Albanese Government granted a passport so she could come to Australia. Now they could have refused that passport, they could've refused to grant it, but instead they handed her a passport so she can come to our country. This shows why you can't trust them on national security.
FORDHAM: The former flatmate says this wasn't her mentality when she was 14, she was a married woman, it wasn't something she made up on the spot, even if she doesn't want to do that stuff anymore, she would still have that mentality and we don't want that here.
PATERSON: Well, I think that's just common sense. Anybody who voluntarily left our country to join a terrorist organisation is not someone that we want back into our country. They made their choices and they should live with those choices and a consequence of those choices. And they frankly shouldn't have political supporters of the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, like Dr. Jamal Rifi, supporting their repatriation to Australia with these freelance repatriation operations. You know, under Angus Taylor, the Liberal Party has a policy of criminalising these freelance repatriation operations because we should not have private citizens deciding if and when supporters of terrorist organisations come into our country.
FORDHAM: Even this bride's own father says that she's lying. He says her claim that she was tricked into going to Syria is not true. And he says, I'm a Muslim, I therefore don't lie. And I'm telling you, in the way of Islam, when you go and fight for the cause of Allah, you're either victorious or you're vanquished, but you don't surrender. So, we're getting hints from the former flatmate, from her own dad, but the Federal Government's not picking up on them.
PATERSON: Well, that's pretty damning evidence for your own father to say that about you. And if I wanted to return to Australia after my dreams of joining Islamic State failed, I'd probably lie about it too and say that I was tricked or coerced over there. But frankly, we should start this process with extreme scepticism about any of the claims made by these people who we call ISIS brides. But let's remember they're just members of ISIS. They're people who went to join Islamic State and support Islamic State, whether they're male or female, they believed that this was a good thing to be part of and that is fundamentally incompatible with Australian values.
FORDHAM: Who paid for their passports?
PATERSON: Great question. That is yet to be answered. Who paid for their passports? Why was it granted to a third party, whoever that was? How were these passports transported to the region across international borders? And why did the Federal Government not use the powers under the Passport Act, in particular, Section 14, to refuse to issue the passports to someone who represents a security threat to Australia?
FORDHAM: I think everyone wants to see Tony Burke cross-examined on this. Will there be an opportunity to do that when Parliament resumes?
PATERSON: I absolutely assure you that will happen in Parliament next week and let's hope we get some straight answers from Tony Burke this time because frankly over the last week or so he's been misleading Australians when he said that granting a passport is just like granting a Medicare card, it's an automatic process that can't be stopped. Well that is not true, they could have stopped issuing these passports if they wanted, but they wanted to issue them and so they did.
FORDHAM: Thanks for keeping up the pressure because you're doing so on behalf of many, many people who are listening right now. Thank you so much.
PATERSON: Thanks Ben.
ENDS