Australian news and politics live: ISIS brides and their children land back in Australia, three arrested

LNG producers have slammed a new policy forcing them to sell 20 per cent of their product directly to the domestic market, warning it will have impacts on competition, investment and future supply.

Australian Energy Producers Chief Executive Samantha McCulloch said the new east coast gas reserve for Queensland LNG exporters would crowd out smaller domestic producers.

“There is no justification for such heavy-handed intervention when the east coast market is currently well supplied and prices are the lowest they’ve been in years, with Australian gas users insulated from the global energy crisis.

“It also risks undermining our reputation as a reliable trading partner at a time when our LNG exports are critical for regional energy security.

“The Prime Minister has rightly acknowledged the strategic importance of our LNG export relationships for Australia’s liquid fuel security,” Ms McCulloch said in a statement.

“The gas market review was the opportunity to reset the east coast gas market and restore investor confidence. But today’s announcement ultimately creates more questions than answers.”

A group of ISIS-linked Australian women and their children are set to arrive in Sydney and Melbourne on Thursday evening, with police preparing for arrests, airport security operations and ongoing surveillance as the controversial repatriation unfolds.

The cohort of four women and nine children left Syria’s al-Roj detention camp in late April and travelled via Damascus before securing commercial flights back to Australia.

The group were understood to have been living in the camp in northern Syria for several years after travelling to the region as far back as 2014 during the ISIS caliphate.

Two flights are expected to land on Thursday night, including Qatar Airways flight QR904 into Melbourne around 5pm and QR908 into Sydney shortly after. Both flights departed Doha on Wednesday night.

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At least one Australian who was on board a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is believed to have returned home in recent days.

The passenger is said to be among 23 people who disembarked from the MV Hondius at St Helena last month, ten days after the first death on board.

At least one of the travellers who left the stricken cruise ship has since tested positive to the virus and remains in a Swiss hospital.

Another passenger who remains stranded on board under strict quarantine has told the Spanish newspaper El Pias others were able to leave freely on April 21.

“The Australian went back to Australia, the one from Taiwan to Taiwan, the Americans to all corners of North America. The Englishman to England, the Dutch to their homes… I don’t remember the rest, but no Spaniards,” the anonymous passenger told the newspaper.

The Nightly has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment, but it is yet to respond.

The Energy Minister says a new east coast gas reservation has its critics, but argues a similar scheme introduced in Western Australia in 2008 has proven successful.

Labor has unveiled its long-awaited policy, which will force LNG companies to divert 20 per cent of their supplies to the domestic market from July 2027.

“People said it will be the end of gas in Western Australia,” Chris Bowen told reporters in Sydney.

“I’m not sure that has turned out in Western Australia, and that’s not how it’s going to turn out here”.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres insists the reservation will provide certainty to Australian industry and support blue-collar jobs.

“For Australian industry, what it means for those facilities that are facing higher gas prices now, is that they will see the lowest possible gas prices over the coming years and a certain investment horizon,” he said.

As the so-called ISIS brides and their children are on their way back to Australia, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor is again having a crack at the Government for not supporting his bill that would have outlawed anyone providing help to them.

“The Government should be doing everything it can to prevent them coming back to the country. And they haven’t,” he tells reporters at an agricultural festival in Tasmania.

“They’ve done DNA testing. They have allowed and enabled third parties to be involved in and support the repatriation. They’ve issued and distributed passports.”

AFP commissioner Krissy Barrett said on Wednesday that at least some of the four women should expect to be arrested when they do arrive back in the country.

Resources Minister Madeline King says the east coast 20 per cent domestic reservation policy will “put downward pressure on gas prices” and is scheduled to begin in July 2027.

“Our gas market prices will no longer be hostage to international markets,” Minister King told reporters while indicating there would be further detailed consultation with industry.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has confirmed LNG producers will be forced to divert 20 per cent of their export volumes into the domestic market under a new east coast gas reservation scheme.

Mr Bowen has described the new policy as “sensible”, which will mean “Australian needs being catered for and Australian needs being met”.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen is shortly expected to unveil details of Labor’s proposed east coast gas reservation scheme, as part of the government’s efforts to stave off looming domestic supply shortfalls.

The Nightly has confirmed Mr Bowen is scheduled at 12.30pm Sydney time to outline measures which could force exporters to set aside between 15 per cent and 25 per cent of new supplies for Australian use.

Labor has recently shelved plans to put a new tax on gas exports as Australia works with Asian trade partners to secure imports of fuel amid the global oil crisis.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon says officers will be at Sydney Airport in force on Thursday for the arrival of members of the ISIS bride cohort.

“I think the announcement has had significant public interest. So we’ll certainly have a policing presence, as will the AFP, just to make sure there’s no breach of the peace,” he told 2GB.

“Just to make sure that any people that may attend in support or against the people returning to Australia aren’t unruly and behave.”

He also said his force was ready to step in if a mother and child are separated due to an arrest.

“We would work very closely with any relatives of that child, or certainly, if not, the Department of Communities and Justice will work closely to make sure that child is taken care of.

“It is important we take care of any children who may be present.”

Education Minister Jason Clare says that the AFP know what they are doing, desperately attempting to bring calm as 13 ISIS bride cohort members fly to Australia.

“Well, I’ve got faith in the Australian Federal Police. They know what they’re doing. This is not their first rodeo,” Mr Clare told ABC News Breakfast on Thursday.

“I trust in the words of the AFP Commissioner yesterday, when she said that some of these women will be arrested when they arrive and others will be subject to further investigation.”

As for the children, Mr Clare said reintegration would “take time”.

“Kids don’t get to choose who their parents are, and these children have seen the sorts of things that no child should ever be exposed to,” he said. “It’s going to take time for these children to reintegrate into Australian society.”