KEY POINTS
- There has been no decision made on repatriating remaining 'ISIS brides'.
- Changes to the terror listing system are being considered.
- The federal government says right-wing extremism is a growing threat.
Australian citizens stranded in Syrian refugee camps are still in indefinite limbo, with no decision made on when they will return home.
And the home affairs minister has warned Australia’s anti-terror system "isn't reflecting the shape of the problem", as the threat of right-wing extremism grows.
More than 40 Australians, including children, remain stranded in squalid refugee camps in Syria, nearly four years since the fall of the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s so-called caliphate.
Seventeen Australians - four women and their 13 children - returned to the country in October, sparking fears some may pose a threat to the community, having joined IS at the height of its powers.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil says no decision has been made on the remaining Australians in Syrian refugee camps. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
But speaking to the National Press Club on Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said as Australian citizens, the women are entitled to return.
Ms O'Neil said Labor had learned lessons from similar repatriations under the former Coalition government, which she described as "very successful".
"Is the safest thing for these 13 children to grow up in a squalid camp, where they are subjected to radical ideologies every single day, and then return to Australia at some point when they are an adult?" she asked.
"Or is it safer for us to bring them here, so they can live a life around Australian values?
"With regard to these specific people, the Australian government made the latter decision."
But Ms O'Neil confirmed Labor had “not made any further decisions” on repatriating the remainder of the Australian cohort in Syria.
She also rejected claims Labor had failed to communicate with local communities where the women are likely to be resettled, after NSW minister David Elliott last month blasted her for “not bothering” to consult with the state government before their return.
"I fiercely believe, and I think every politician would agree, that when we do something that affects local communities, they are entitled to have us go to them and talk to them," Ms O’Neil said.
"That is what I did."
The women reportedly agreed to subject themselves to control orders, giving authorities sweeping powers to monitor their movements, on their return.
But police conceded last month they did not yet have “sufficient grounds” to impose the orders, which require approval from a court.
'Terror threat has evolved'
And after an Australian terrorist murdered 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in 2019, Ms O’Neil described the growing presence of right-wing extremism at home as "enormously concerning".
She confirmed Labor is working through whether laws currently "capture violent conduct in the right-wing terror world".
"This is a problem that I do take very seriously," she said.
"We are actually looking at the way we think about and manage terrorism in Australia to consider whether it is appropriate for these new forms of terrorism that we are seeing."
That could include Australia’s system for listing terror groups, which is currently dominated by Islamist extremist groups.
Right-wing extremist groups account for just three of the 29 proscribed terror organisations in Australia, despite ASIO last year revealing they made up roughly half of its counter-terror workload.
Twenty-five Islamist groups are listed, and the other is a Kurdish nationalist organisation.
"The shape of our terror threat has evolved, and I think we do need to ask why that listing of proscribed organisations isn't reflecting the shape of the problem," Ms O’Neil said.
