Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Senator for Western Australia
TRANSCRIPT
Sky News – Credlin
8 October 2025
Topics: ISIS brides
E&OE
Peta Credlin
Joining me now, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Michaelia Cash. Well, Senator, so much for the Prime Minister and Tony Burke, the Home Affairs Minister, saying that reports these women were coming home were not accurate. That’s the Prime Minister’s phrase, and that the government, his government, was doing nothing to assist.
Senator Cash
Well, Peta, what is the Albanese government hiding? I mean, Mr. Albanese is on the record saying the reports that the ISIS brides were returning to Australia were not accurate. Well, guess what? We now know that they were. I mean, Mr. Albanese, Peta, is treating the Australian people like they are fools. What about the safety and security of the Australian people? They deserve answers. And yesterday, Peta, instead at estimates with Senator Wong, Senator Wong, on behalf of the Prime Minister, refused to answer even the most basic of questions. And I kid you not, the department said they could not tell us how many ISIS brides had returned to Australia, and I quote, because it might compromise their privacy. I mean, you’ve got to be kidding me. And yet today, we have confirmation. Despite Mr. Albanese looking the Australian people in the eye and saying the reports that the ISIS brides were returning were inaccurate, we now know that was not true. And indeed, Peta, they’ve touched down. They’re home. They’re on Australian soil.
Peta Credlin
I’m made the point also that the government’s got involved in providing citizenship by descent to the children. They’ve also got involved by reissuing passports, I presume, to the women, that their passports would have long been out of date, even if they had them in their possession, passports for the children. Can you understand why Australians are saying, look, these women left almost a decade ago. They signed up to a death cult, even if they were just idiots. And I’ve seen and read enough and had enough security briefings to say that’s in dispute. They’ve been inculcated in one of the worst Islamist groups in the world. They’ve been out of the country for a long time. They’re coming home to Australia at a time that the country is a tinderbox in these issues. The government should be out the front of the Prime Minister’s courtyard giving a full and frank press conference and giving Australians assurances that they’ve got this under the control, but you’ve got the minister hiding under the desk with you the other day, you’ve got the Prime Minister fibbing away in the Parliament. It just looks like they have got something to hide.
Senator Cash
Well, Peta, let’s be very clear, as you said, these women made the conscious decision to leave the great country of Australia where we have freedom, where we have democracy. They chose to go and join a barbaric death cult that rapes, tortures and murders men, women and children. In fact, ISIS have been described as one of the most barbaric terrorist organisations of all time. I would have thought the Australian people deserve answers to the most basic of questions, in terms of what assessments Peta, were done by this government and their agencies prior to the women returning back to home soil in Australia. What monitoring conditions are in place, given that, as you said, they have now been overseas for a very, very long period of time, living with and associating with a death cult? But more than that, what is the Albanese Government doing to keep Australians safe and Peta, what was also now revealed in Senate estimates today is there’s actually a larger cohort of women who want to return to Australia. So Mr. Albanese has some very serious questions now to answer. What does the government know about this cohort? How large is it? Are they coming back to Australia? What security assessments are going to be done? So I have to say again, the Albanese government is treating the Australian people like fools. This is their safety and their security, and they deserve answers.
Peta Credlin
Well, just just quickly, have you just a simple answer here? Have you been able to get a full briefing from the government on all of those concerns?
Senator Cash
You saw the answers, or non-answers that Penny Wong gave yesterday, you saw, again, the non-answers that the government provided today. But hold on, I’ve got Friday, Senator Wong, Foreign Affairs, I will again pursue these questions on behalf of the Australian people.
Peta Credlin
Well, I will get my popcorn and watch that one. Michaelia Cash, I tell you what. Thank you.
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