Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Attorney-General
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Senator for Western Australia
3 March 2026
Sky News Sharri
Topics: Organisations mourning Ayatollah; Taxpayer funding; ISIS brides
E&OE
Sharri Markson
And joining me now is Shadow Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash. Michaelia, thanks for your time. Look, should taxpayer funds be withdrawn from organisations that are mourning the passing of a terror leader?
Senator Cash
Absolutely, this is totally unacceptable, Sharri. So what we have now seen is a Labor member has had promised to an organisation in his electorate, $670,000 of taxpayers’ money. This organisation is currently publicly mourning, in person and online, the death of one of the most murderous people in the world, a brutal dictator who slaughtered his own people, and as you well know, exported terrorism overseas, including in Australia. I have a very basic principle, taxpayer money doesn’t go to these organisations. So I want Mr. Albanese to advise the taxpayers, if the money hasn’t been handed over, Sharri – it ain’t going nowhere. And if it has, start clawing it back. But I think even more broadly, Mr. Albanese needs to announce tomorrow, look the Australian people in the eye and say, I am now announcing an audit of any organisation that has mourned the death of the murderous dictator. I have a very simple principle, the baseline principle, Australian taxpayers’ hard earned dollars should not go to these organisations. It is un-Australian. It is not in accordance with our Australian values. And I can tell you this, there is one thing Angus Taylor has made very, very clear, unlike Mr. Albanese, who is prepared to trash our great country and everything we hold dear, we will do everything we can to protect Australian values, and you won’t see money under us going to these organisations.
Sharri Markson
I played the Prime Minister’s response a bit earlier in the show. He was reluctant to criticise this. In his second answer, he eventually called it, I think he didn’t even say inappropriate. I think he said, not appropriate. Is this response good enough, Michaelia?
Senator Cash
Well, I almost don’t have an answer to you, because it is so appalling what the Prime Minister didn’t do. So let me tell you what’s not appropriate, Sharri. Not appropriate is jumping the queue at Woolies. Not appropriate is not wearing shoes into a restaurant after you have been to the beach. This is completely, totally and utterly unacceptable behaviour mourning the death of the person who led a listed terrorist organisation in Australia. But on top of that, if they were in any way advocating for this particular organisation, it is potentially a criminal offence in Australia. So Mr. Albanese has yet again shown the Australian people he does not have the backbone, the spine or the guts, to look them in the eye and say what has occurred at these organisations is it’s not just unacceptable. It is completely un-Australian, and we need to put a stop to it. Sharri, again, a fundamental difference. Albanese, prepared to trash and turn his back on Australian values. Angus Taylor, first and foremost, protect and stand up for Australian values.
Sharri Markson
The ISIS cohort. And I think we should call them the ISIS cohort, not the ISIS brides, they were the focus again of Question Time today, things got pretty heated.
So two things, firstly, how is the response from previous Coalition governments different to the Albanese government? And also, have you actually got an answer on whether anyone in the Albanese government assisted with giving passports to this group?
Senator Cash
Uh, no, we haven’t. The government is misleading – it is lying to the Australian people every step of the way in relation to the assistance that it is giving to the ISIS brides. I mean, what more proof could you need? There is Dr Jamal Rifi. He proudly wears the t-shirt ‘Friends of Tony Burke.’ Tony Burke, the relevant minister. He’s there at Tony’s election party celebrating his win. He is currently on the ground working out how to get the ISIS cohort back to Australia. These are women who turned their back on our great country. They turned their back on everything we stand for. They forfeited, quite frankly, the right to come back to this country when they want to, but this government throws its hands up and uses every bit of weasel words in the book to make excuses again. Angus Taylor has made it very, very clear, the Coalition government will use every lever.
Sharri Markson
We’re completely out of time. What the Prime Minister said there that, you know, Peter Dutton as Home Affairs Minister didn’t act any differently.
Senator Cash
Oh, please come on. And that’s the same Prime Minister who, during the election campaign, was saying that Peter Dutton was so tough he would actually scare people. So please don’t believe a word this Prime Minister is saying. So judge them on their record. We brought back orphans. We were up front with the Australian people, and we repatriated them. This is a fundamentally different situation. This is a government that is not lifting a finger to stop these brides coming back. We have made it very, very clear, we will use every single lever available to us to shut the door on them. It’s a very simple principle. You either stand for that principle or you don’t. And Mr. Albanese doesn’t.
Sharri Markson
All right, and he hasn’t been transparent about it, that’s for sure.
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