Australian news and politics live: Anika Wells forced to repay taxpayer-funded expenses after travel audit

A woman accused of joining Islamic State will remain behind bars after a judge denied her bid to rejoin her son at the family home.

Janai Safar, 32, was arrested after arriving in Australia with a group of women and children who were all returning from a Syrian refugee camp on Thursday night.

She faced a NSW Bail Division Court on Friday via audiovisual link charged with entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.

Both charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Her lawyer said an issue in the case will be how heavily involved she was with the terror group and whether she was pressured to go along with their activities.

Michael Ainsworth also noted the alleged offending occurred years ago and she was unlikely to reoffend.

“March 2017 is when she effectively leaves Raqqa, which mean’s she’s no longer in the declared zone and certainly no longer declared to be a participant of the organisation,” Mr Ainsworth told the court.

“We’re looking at charges that are now effectively nine years old and offences alleged to be committed by her 12 years ago.”

But Judge Daniel Covington ruled she did not meet the exceptional circumstances needed to be granted bail despite her nine-year-old son having never lived away from her.

— from AAP

Four men have been charged for allegedly accessing and distributing ISIS propaganda online.

On 29 November, 2024, the luggage of a now-20-year-old-man was routinely examined at Melbourne International Airport after he returned to Australia from Turkey.

During this search, border force officers located suspicious content on his mobile phone, which was seized, and the matter was reported to the Australian Federal Police.

Similarly, a now-21-year-old man was pulled aside at Melbourne International Airport on 1 June, 2025, for a routine examination of his luggage prior to his flight to Turkey.

Officers located suspicious material on his mobile phone, which was seized by police.

Police allege the men “had been sending, sharing and receiving suspected violent extremist material, which included images and videos of previous terrorist attacks and other ISIS propaganda.”

On Thursday, four search warrants were executed in the Melbourne suburbs of Roxburgh Park, Clyde South and Meadow Heights. Phones and electronic devices were seized and will be examined.

The 20 and 21 year olds and two other men, aged 19 and 29, were arrested and charged with possession of violent extremist material. A fifth man was arrested and released.

The testimonies coming out of the royal commission on anti-Semitism are harrowing.

Witness after witness has spoken on how their Jewish existence in Australia is under threat. They don’t recognise the country they once knew, the safe haven many believed it was.

And sadly, they report terrible incidents targeting Australian Jews which have understandably made them fearful — fearful for their families, fearful for their future and fearful that they will one day be forced to leave this country.

It may already be happening. Two of the witnesses called by the commission this week said they are actually departing Australia, in part as a result of their anti-Semitic experiences here.

These feelings, while shocking to many Australians, are not new in Jewish history. Over the centuries, Jews have been driven from country after country — England, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Russia and beyond.

Even in the United States, during their Civil War, General Ulysses S Grant expelled “Jews as a class” from parts of the country — an order later revoked.

Read the full opinion here.

A Sydney lawyer has told the Royal Commission about an anti-Semitism incident she encountered at a pub where a man called her a “Jewish rat”.

The woman, in her early 30s, is not Jewish but said she found the trope used to dehumanize Jewish people as confronting and “alienating”.

“If I was actually Jewish, and I had generations of my family have to suffer through anti-Semitism and to hear that, I can’t imagine how that would feel,” she told the Commission in an anonymous testimony.

“It was really alienating enough not being a Jewish person to hear that.”

She didn’t report it to police but thought back on the incident after the Bondi Beach terror attack.

“I thought about reporting it, but I didn’t really know what police would make of it, because I’m not actually Jewish myself,” she said.

“So, I thought, he’s gone. It’s over. I’ll just sort of forget about it. But then Bondi happened.

“I thought back over this incident and how quickly things can move from someone just having an opinion and expressing that opinion, and then moving into violence.

“And I thought that potentially, if I had made a report, then police could have at least had some intelligence on this person if in the future this person tried to get a gun license for example.

“There would be the report of what he had said, and potentially that would be strong evidence against him being the type of person that should have a gun license.”

The Prime Minister has defended the government’s handling of Australians returning from Syria, as 13 women and children linked to Islamic State arrived back in the country.

Asked about their arrival, he said the children were “victims of the decisions their parents have made”.

“One of the things that divides our society from the lawless barbarity of Isis is we believe in the rule of law and that means if you are an Australian citizen, you have some entitlements.”

He also pushed back on criticism from the opposition and parts of the media.

“I have seen comments from various Coalition figures and some in the media that they know are simply not true. We provided no support for these people. They were not brought back.”

“It is correct the US government and others urged us to do so. We chose to make our own decisions as a sovereign state and not provide them with any support because I have absolutely zero sympathy for these people. I have sympathy for the children, who are victims of decisions their parents have made.”

Of the three women who arrived in Australia after years in detention, he confirmed they had been taken into custody.

“They are in the clink, got arrested and they will be charged today.”

“I have faith in our authorities, in the Australian Federal Police, Asio, I will back them, allow them to do the job and that is what they have done … Australian citizens have rights, but we have a right as a government to ensure the law is upheld and these people will face the full force of the law.”

The Prime Minister has dismissed calls for Anika Wells to resign, defending the minister after she repaid $10,000 in expenses.

Asked about the repayment, he said “she has paid back the money” and pointed to the role of the independent parliamentary expenses authority.

“She referred herself to it which was appropriate and it was appropriate that she paid back the money … in accordance with the rules.”

He added: “She has done what the rules require. Anika Wells is a very good minister doing extraordinary work … and Anika Wells has apologised.”

Pressed on whether Ms Wells should step down, the Prime Minister reiterated that she had apologised and repaid the funds.

“Bridget McKenzie breached a range of flights while campaigning about people not making declarations. There were more than a dozen that she made. She did that and she remains a shadow minister in a senior position indeed. She is deputy leader of the Nationals in the Senate.”

Anthony Albanese has announced an extra $3.8 billion investment in Victoria’s Suburban Rail Loop.

Speaking in Melbourne on Friday morning beside Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, the Prime Minister said the project was “going gangbusters.”

“This project is exciting. It will create jobs in construction, but importantly, will make an enormous difference for this growing community,” Mr Albanese said.

The extra investment adds to an existing $2.2b that was already committed to the project.

The PM added that the additional funding will “improve livability and sustainability” in the capital city.

Asked whether the Victorian government had requested additional funding, he said discussions had been handled in the usual way.

“They negotiated, as we always do, constructively, in order to deliver what was necessary to make sure that this project is full-steam ahead,” he said.

“This will flow. You will see that on Tuesday night (budget night).

Mr Albanese argued that failing to invest in infrastructure would ultimately be more costly.

“What costs money is not building proper infrastructure. What costs money [is] through urban congestion, through people not having homes to live in close to public transport.”

“We are committed to investment in infrastructure because that is how you grow an economy, that is one of the best things you can do to boost productivity.

“Whether it’s Paris, New York, London, they all have not rail networks that go all to one point at the equivalent of Central Station.”

Cabinet minister Anika Wells has repaid taxpayer-funded expenses for four trips after an audit of nearly 250 claims sparked by media scrutiny late last year of her use of travel entitlements.

The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority has now audited every trip Ms Wells took as a minister between 2022 and 2025.

It found no misconduct or ethical breaches.

“The audit found, over four years of travel involving nearly 250 separate trips, I made four mistakes,” Ms Wells said in a statement on Friday.

“These were four cases where I chose what I thought was the more sensible, cheaper option, but those choices were not allowed according to the rules, which I accept and respect. I accept IPEA’s assessment and I am sorry for making these honest mistakes.

“I have repaid the money with a penalty loading.”

A witness to the Royal Commission has told how he stopped taking public transport after the October 7 Hamas attack fearing his personal safety was at risk due to a rise in anti-Semitisim.

In his testimony, Aaron Guttmann also described how a pro-Palestine protest at Sydney Opera House on October 9 perpetuated his fears.

“I stopped catching public transport after October 7,” he said.

“The reports that were coming out ‘where are the Jews?’. The Sydney Opera House. Reports in Melbourne that there were people driving around the streets after October 7 saying ‘where are the Jews?’, ‘we want to get them’.

“There were Neo Nazis going on trains looking for Jewish people.

“I am proud of being Jewish, but I also know my personal safety was at risk.”

He also shared how his family would face slurs while taking part in community sports, including his children hearing remarks about Hilter at soccer games attended by children aged 11 to 15.

“There were comments made about ‘gassing the Jews’ around ‘Hitler doing what’s right’.

“It’s traumatic for parents to hear what the kids are listening to, let alone the kids themselves.”

Mia Kline has told day five of the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion how she was kicked out of a Canberra sharehouse for being a zionist.

Ms Kline had taught Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the Jewish Community Centre in Canberra and was the cohead of the ACT’s Jewish youth movement when she was living with two other women.

In May 2024, she claimed her former housemates held a meeting to ask her to move our as they felt uncomfortable living with her.

“My housemates started speaking about how for the past couple of months, since October 7 and the war, they felt like they’ve been walking on eggshells in the house around me.

“That the house wasn’t a safe space for them to have tough political conversations about current events.

“That they couldn’t reconcile my views with their values, and that we couldn’t live under one roof.

“This was all in relation to me being a Zionist — a proud, visible Zionist — and they said that they couldn’t live with me. I was sitting there distraught. I was sobbing.”

She described a shift in sentiment and feeling she was put on trial by others after the October 7 Hamas terror attack.

“When they saw a Jewish person, they felt that it was appropriate or welcomed to ask questions,” she said.

“About the IDF, the current government of the day in Israel, the mere existence of a country. And they were asking me those questions directly.”