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

Senior Labor figure Mark Butler has been forced to defend the Government’s stance on the repatriation of the 34 ISIS brides and children, as the Home Affairs Minister faces mounting heat for dodging questions over the deepening 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 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.”

On Friday Opposition Leader Angus Taylor stepped up his criticism of Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi, who is coordinating the repatriation of the ISIS brides, questioning why he would do so without knowing the extent to which they had been radicalised.

“ISIS is a death cult and these people have supported ISIS,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“The one thing we absolutely do know is that they’ve been supporters of ISIS. That’s why they went to where they went.”

“I think it is extraordinary that someone would be seeking to repatriate these people without understanding the extent of the radicalisation.”

Mr Taylor’s remarks come after he said he had visited families in Sydney who had been impacted by the ISIS regime.

“We’ve heard stories today of the pain that has been inflicted. We’ve also heard stories today about family members and friends and neighbours who were murdered and maimed by ISIS,” he said.

“This is an organisation that we cannot accept in this country, any part of it.”

When asked this week whether he could assure the Australian public they would be safe following the return of the 11 families, Dr Rifi responded that “competent agencies” would ensure measures are in place “to prevent that harm”.

“I’m very confident those children right now, they don’t pose much threat to Australia, Australian people and our way of life. But the longer we leave them there, then they might,” he told 7NEWS.