Women and children linked to Islamic State fighters in Syria have Australian travel documents, Tony Burke suggests
Tony Burke, the home affairs minister, has not-quite-explicitly implied that a group of women and children stuck in Syria who are the family members of Islamic State fighters, have Australian passports or travel documents, or at least have the right to get them.
Burke was asked about reports those in the group of 34 people had the documents last night on ABC’s 7.30. He said “the reality is anyone who’s a citizen is able to apply for a passport and receive a passport”. When pressed by host Sarah Ferguson what that meant, Burke continued:
I think I’m giving the very practical answer that if anyone applies for a passport as a citizen, they are issued with a passport, in the same way that if someone applies for a Medicare card, they get a Medicare card. These are automatic processes done by public servants.
“That’s a long way of saying yes,” Ferguson replied.
“I’ve given the answer with the words I wanted to,” Burke said. “Anybody who has been found to be a citizen and has applied and been issued with a passport – everybody has the same citizenship in Australia.”
One adult in the group was issued a temporary exclusion order yesterday, banning them from coming to Australia for up to two years. The rest of the group has not been assessed by intelligence agencies as meeting the threshold to be banned from the country, but the government has said it is not actively helping them return.
Key events
Melissa Davey
Australian health insurance premiums just had their biggest hike in a decade. Is it time to scrap private health cover?
The government has approved a 4.41% private health insurance premium rise from April – the largest hike in almost 10 years.
With consumers already grappling with cost-of-living pressures, including an interest rate rise earlier in February, more Australians are likely to be wondering whether keeping their private health insurance is worth it.
There have been numerous attempts by the government to make private health insurance more affordable and consumer-friendly since then, including labelling policies as gold, silver, bronze or basic, and introducing reforms to reduce junk products.
Those policies have failed.
The system remains difficult to navigate and questions about value for money persist.
Read more here:
Fair Trading issues warning about business claiming false links to Bondi terror attack
Fair Trading NSW have warned consumers to avoid dealing with a business claiming false links to the Bondi Beach terror attack.
The agency said the clothing and accessories website Bondi United falsely claimed to support the victims of the attack. The company operated two websites, both of which have now been taken down, and has indicated it will offer refunds to customers who contact it asking for one.
Anoulack Chanthivong, the NSW minister for fair trading, said “attempting to profit off this horrific incident is just plain wrong – and it is a breach of Australian Consumer Law”.
The NSW Government strongly condemns any attempts to mislead consumers in the aftermath of this terror event, and we will continue to do everything we can to protect consumers from this behaviour.
I encourage people to buy from reputable sellers, be cautious when dealing with unfamiliar online sellers, and get in contact with NSW Fair Trading if they believe they have been adversely affected by this business.
A separate incident involving a website called Isla & James prompted a Fair Trading warning in January after it cited the Bondi beach shooting as the reason for a fake “closing sale”, falsely claiming one of its cofounders “was shot” in the terror attack. That site has also been taken down.
Coalition says protecting Australia ‘bigger obligation’ than providing passports to citizens
Jonno Duniam, the shadow home affairs minister, spoke about the passports this morning as the opposition seeks to hammer the government on the matter. He told Channel Seven’s Sunrise reports those in the group had travel documents was “of incredible concern, I think, to most Australians that these people want to come back to Australia”, adding:
And if one person has been hit with a temporary exclusion order for going to this part of world and doing what they’ve done, why is it not the case that the others have not had the same order applied against them?
Duniam acknowledged that Burke was acting on advice he’d received from intelligence agencies, but asked why others in the group had not been subject to temporary exclusion orders:
I would be very interested to know what advice there is on the others because I think the fact that they’ve all gone to the same place for the same purpose … I’m not sure how you can differentiate between them.
But putting that to one side, if our laws aren’t strong enough to protect us, to prevent people who’ve gone to support Isis from coming back to this country, then the government should look at expanding and strengthening those laws and we stand as an opposition ready to work with them.
So sure, we have obligations to provide passports to Australian citizens, but we have an even bigger obligation to protect our country, our security and our way of life.
Women and children linked to Islamic State fighters in Syria have Australian travel documents, Tony Burke suggests
Tony Burke, the home affairs minister, has not-quite-explicitly implied that a group of women and children stuck in Syria who are the family members of Islamic State fighters, have Australian passports or travel documents, or at least have the right to get them.
Burke was asked about reports those in the group of 34 people had the documents last night on ABC’s 7.30. He said “the reality is anyone who’s a citizen is able to apply for a passport and receive a passport”. When pressed by host Sarah Ferguson what that meant, Burke continued:
I think I’m giving the very practical answer that if anyone applies for a passport as a citizen, they are issued with a passport, in the same way that if someone applies for a Medicare card, they get a Medicare card. These are automatic processes done by public servants.
“That’s a long way of saying yes,” Ferguson replied.
“I’ve given the answer with the words I wanted to,” Burke said. “Anybody who has been found to be a citizen and has applied and been issued with a passport – everybody has the same citizenship in Australia.”
One adult in the group was issued a temporary exclusion order yesterday, banning them from coming to Australia for up to two years. The rest of the group has not been assessed by intelligence agencies as meeting the threshold to be banned from the country, but the government has said it is not actively helping them return.
$170m in joint funding announced for early learning services in Victoria
The federal and Victorian governments have announced $170m in joint funding for more not-for-profit early learning services in the state’s outer suburbs and regions this morning.
The new effort will see the creation of about 1,110 early childhood education places across 11 locations, including Kings Park, Wedderburn, Weir Views, Geelong, Whittlesea, Casey, Frankston and Swan Hill. The services will come online over the next four years.
Education minister Jason Clare said the fund would help families secure access to early education in “communities that need them most”.
Where you grow up shouldn’t determine whether you can access early education.
These projects in Victoria mean more families can access early learning close to home and more children start school ready to go and ready to learn.
Aussie teen suffers fall in Olympic snowboard thriller
Ally Hickman has suffered a bruised sternum after the Australian snowboarding teen took a nasty fall in the women’s slopestyle Olympic final, where she still finished an admirable seventh, AAP reports.
Just 16 years old, the Sydney schoolgirl was in fourth spot after the first of three runs in the final at Livigno Snow Park on Wednesday, awarded a score of 67.70 for her performance navigating three rails and three jumps down the mountain course.
But the Olympic debutant fell during her second run, injuring her sternum, and was unable to improve on her score. While she was cleared to compete in her third run, she had a further fall at the last jump which again jarred the injury.
Hickman was the only Australian to make the top-12 final with Beijing bronze medallist Tess Coady missing the cut.
Jobless rate tipped to rise again
Australia’s unemployment is widely tipped to be on the rise once again after a surprise fall, Australian Associated Press reports.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the first lot of labour force figures of 2026 today, with a slight rise to 4.2% for January expected.
A fall in the seasonally adjusted rate to 4.1% in December took forecasters by surprise.
NAB senior economist Taylor Nugent said a course correction was on the cards for January’s data.
It’s expected 20,000 more jobs will be added to the economy for the month.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take the blog reins. Let’s see what the news holds.
NZ foreign affairs minister says Australian political ‘churn’ makes international relations harder
The New Zealand foreign affairs minister, Winston Peters, says he is “aghast” at the “inexcusable” turmoil in Australian political ranks which he attributes to “ego”.
Peters is in his third stint as New Zealand’s top diplomat, having served in the governments of Helen Clark, Jacinda Ardern and now Christopher Luxon.
Asked of his ties to newly elected opposition leader Angus Taylor, the 80-year-old leader of the rightwing NZ First party instead offered a critique of recent leadership battles in Australian politics.
“Can I just say, as an outsider, I’m aghast,” he told Australian Associated Press in Wellington.
The years of stability, first of [Bob] Hawke and then [John] Howard, those years of civility have been very critical for Australia’s success.
The churn now really is inexcusable, and the churn both in the Labor and the Liberal party, has been massive.
In the end, you’ve got to stand back and say to those parties … ‘what is going on with you when you think that personal ego is the most important thing to elevation?’
Peters said the task of ensuring strong relations wasn’t helped by political turnover.
“It makes your job harder because you keep on getting new leaders,” he said, before joking he may not need to begin fresh relationship-building with the new Liberal foreign affairs spokesperson, Ted O’Brien.
“The way the polls are going, maybe not,” he said.
Josh Taylor
Tony Burke defends temporary exclusion order against woman
Burke revealed that the decision to make a temporary exclusion order against one woman on Monday – who he revealed came to Australia and became a citizen under the Howard government and went to Syria under the Abbott government – was made after reports of the group leaving the camp and preparing to return to Australia had surfaced.
Burke said it would not have made sense to issue the order earlier because it is set for two years.
Burke said if the children were able to return to Australia they would face a similar situation to those who returned under the Morrison government, but he said the parents “may well decide to never come back” because they would “face the full force of the law” for those who are found to have committed crimes.
Burke said he had a different view on the situation to Jamal Rifi – who reports claim is assisting the group – and said the prime minister’s response on the issue had not changed since before the Bondi terror attack.
Burke attacks ‘silly hypocrisy’ from Coalition over IS-linked families
Josh Taylor
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, told the ABC’s 7.30 program last night that the Coalition pressure to prevent the 34 Australian wives and children of IS fighters killed or captured in Syria from returning to Australia was “silly hypocrisy”.
He said if the Coalition wants the group excluded from Australia permanently, “they should look at the laws they voted for, they put in place when they were in government”.
There’s a lot of very silly deeply hypocritical claims coming from the opposition today.
Burke said there were repatriations from Syria under the Morrison government, and also cases where people returned themselves to Australia.
We had 40 people under the Coalition do self-managed returns – that didn’t just include women and children, it included fighters. It included men who had gone there to fight. Now, they were among the returns who came back.
The fact that people with Australian passports have returned from those sorts of situations is not new. It happened under them.
Yesterday the government announced that one of the group would be banned from entering Australia for two years.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, told the ABC’s 7.30 program last night that the Coalition pressure to prevent all the 34 Australian wives and children of IS fighters killed or captured in Syria from returning to Australia was “silly hypocrisy”. More coming up.
New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister has made some pointed comments about Australian politics, saying he’s “aghast” at the rapid change of leadership in the major parties and reckons “ego” is behind it.
Australia’s unemployment is widely tipped to be on the rise once again after a surprise fall. The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the first lot of labour force figures of 2026 today, with a slight rise to 4.2% for January expected.
