Angus Taylor snaps at journalist as Liberals ramp up rhetoric against Australian children in Syrian camp | Australian security and counter-terrorism
Angus Taylor has claimed Australian children in a detention camp in Syria are “ISIS sympathisers” 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 an answer as to 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 have to make up your mind. You have to decide which one,” Taylor said.
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At a combative press conference before question time on Monday afternoon, a reporter asked Taylor: “Are you counting the 20-odd kids in this group as ISIS sympathizers when you brand them as ISIS sympathizers?”
“They are ISIS sympathizers. Let’s be clear that this is a group that goes to the Middle East to support ISIS… there is no ambiguity about this,” the opposition leader said.
“We have to close the door on ISIS sympathizers. We have to have value-based, faith-based tests for who comes to this country, and those who believe in that ideology, the ISIS ideology, are not welcome in this country.”
The comments came after shadow home secretary Jonathon Duniam described the under-18 group as “so-called children”.
The group of 34 women and children, wives and children of killed or imprisoned ISIS fighters, continue to live in the Al Roj concentration camp in northeastern Syria, where poor conditions have been described as: “There is a danger to life”.
Some of the children, all of whom are Australian citizens, were born in the camp and never left the camp.
The Guardian spoke to several young children at the camp last week; among them was six-year-old Layla, a camp-born Australian girl who imagined Australia as a place with an “ice cream shop” and where Bluey and Bingo lived.
Duniam said it was important to show compassion to children, but suggested, without providing evidence, that most of them were closer to adulthood in age.
“But that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice national security, and at this point I don’t know how many of the so-called children are under the age of 17,” Duniam said.
“If people think that these are a group of two- and three-year-olds who are still learning to walk and talk, that’s not the group we’re talking about. These children range in age and the government has no control over what kind of risk they pose.”
Under Passport LawCitizens have the right to obtain a passport, but there are some exemptions for people who have active arrest warrants or who might “harm” the security of the country.
A woman in the group was issued an interim exclusion order in February, banning her from entering Australia for up to two years.
The Albanian government insisted it was not actively helping to return the group to Australia but acknowledged there was little way to prevent the group from returning.
The coalition said it would introduce a bill that would criminalize providing assistance in the repatriation of 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 him a terrorist sympathizer, people can see what that means,” he said.
“They know a six-year-old little girl, don’t they, and being buried in these moral libraries and trying to arm children in a detention camp does her absolutely no credit.
“But when Angus Taylor tries to use these children as political pawns in this way, he degrades politics. He demeans both his party and himself.”
