Mark Butler denies Tony Burke is avoiding questions over ISIS brides repatriation

Senior Labor figure Mark Butler insists the government’s position has not changed on the repatriation of 34 so-called ISIS brides and children to Australia, as the Home Affairs Minister is accused of not answering questions on the growing controversy.

On Sunrise, host Natalie Barr revealed Tony Burke had declined requests to appear on the program each day this week, prompting her to ask Mr Butler if the Home Affairs Minister was “refusing to answer the questions that the Australian people are asking?”

“A range of us have been out in the media stating very clearly, I’m here this morning, Nat, to help state the position very clearly. It hasn’t changed over those couple of weeks we’ve been talking about this,” the Health Minister responded.

“We are not going to provide taxpayer resources to help these women come back to Australia. They took the decision, along with their husbands, their partners at the time, to leave this country and to travel to Syria and Iraq and support one of the most awful death cults we’ve seen in decades.”

Minister Butler was also quizzed on reports that children of two other female extremists held in Syria’s al-Roj camp could have a pathway to Australian citizenship through their now deceased fathers.

Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the immigration department, has told The Australian newspaper that the children of those two women would have the right to claim citizenship by descent if their fathers were indeed Australian.

“The former immigration official who was featured there went through some of the steps that would be required for a child of a father who is potentially deceased and where the body’s not available to be tested for DNA, for example,” Mr Butler responded.

“We’ve not been able, certainly, I’ve not been able to verify it. But the position that the former immigration official steps out there, I think, is the right one as a matter of law,” he added.

That prompted Ms Barr to again highlight that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke “hasn’t come on the show, and there are so many questions. Australians are asking us every day about this. They’re very, very concerned about these ISIS brides.”

Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume, who was also appearing on Friday’s Sunrise segment, said the government “can’t simply wash its hands of this problem.” “It has to have full oversight of these women and these children and their journey back to Australia, because otherwise the community could potentially be at risk. And that’s why Australians are rightly upset by this. There’s questions that simply have not been answered.”