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Transcripts
October 7, 2025
Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Topics: “ISIS brides” in Melbourne, pro-Hamas graffiti in Melbourne
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………
TOM ELLIOT: Okay, so I mentioned the Islamic State brides before. So, somehow, there was a handful of them with their children, all the men that they were married to appeared to have been killed in the fighting. They voluntarily left Australia, the best part of a decade ago, to join one of the most brutal, murderous, evil regimes that you can imagine, that being the Islamic State. Islamic State eventually collapsed, which is a good thing. And now, of course, you know, their dream of a new caliphate hasn't worked, and some of them now want to come back to Australia. And it looks like we've let them. Apparently, there are now two, or there shortly will be two, Islamic State brides and their children who will be living in suburban Melbourne. Our next guest is the acting Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Senator James Paterson. Good morning.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Tom.
TOM ELLIOT: Do we know if they've arrived here yet?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, media reports suggested they arrived in Australia last week, and a report in The Age this morning suggested that they're home here in Victoria, that the state government knew in advance, that Victoria police knew in advance, and presumably the Albanese government told them that.
TOM ELLIOT: But were we obliged to let them back? I mean, as I recall, a lot of them burnt their passports when they went over there, thinking that, you know, they'd be living in the Islamic State forever. Do we have a legal duty to allow them back in?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: The federal government does have options to prevent Australians from returning home if they've been associated with a terrorist organisation overseas. There's something called a temporary exclusion order, which the government can apply for, which stops these people from coming back home. Now it doesn't appear they have applied for that in this instance. So effectively, they've blessed them returning home. It's also highly likely that they granted the children of these ISIS brides passports and Australian citizenship by descent. So the Albanese government has actively facilitated their return to Australia.
TOM ELLIOT: Do you think we have anything to fear from them?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I fear that we do. A colleague made a good point to me this morning. We call these people “ISIS brides.” But actually, they're just members of ISIS. These are people who went and joined one of the most depraved terrorist organisations ever known, who engaged in the most horrific torture and abuse of the people who they lauded over, particularly persecuted Christian minorities like the Assyrian Christian community, like Yazidis, many of whom we welcomed home in Australia over that time and who now live in fear that they are in danger. And given that the Albanese government has answered no questions about this, about whether these people will be charged, about how they will be monitored, about where they will live, I do think the fears that many people hold are legitimate.
TOM ELLIOT: I remember reading that some of the originally Australian Islamic State brides actively participated in torture and, in some cases, the killing of captives. Would the government have at least checked to make sure that the ones that have been let back here didn't do that?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I really hope so, but I don't have high confidence. Tony Burke, the Minister for Home Affairs, who's responsible for this, has not done one press conference on this; he's not done one media interview on this. He has never answered any questions about this. So how are we to know what steps have been taken to monitor these people, to check who they are, to make sure that they can be prosecuted if they've come home? Even just being in an area controlled by Islamic State is a terrorism offence. We have designated areas laws that means it was an offence to go to that area without a proper reason, and going to marry an ISIS fighter is obviously not a proper reason.
TOM ELLIOT: And finally, of course, you would have heard about this appalling billboard which appeared in inner city Fitzroy this morning and said glory to Hamas. Now, if these Islamic State brides are here and they had seen that, they would probably feel right at home, wouldn't they?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, that's the disturbing thing about this, and that's just not a despicable and evil act; it's also potentially a crime, and it must be investigated as a crime. It is a crime in this country to incite violence. It is a crime in his country to advocate terrorism. And I hope the joint counter-terrorism teams of the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police are working to identify who's responsible for that graffiti, ensuring they can be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
TOM ELLIOT: Thank you for your time.
ENDS