{"id":513449,"date":"2026-03-02T07:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513449\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T07:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T07:52:08","slug":"angus-taylor-snaps-at-journalist-as-liberals-ramp-up-rhetoric-against-australian-children-in-syrian-camp-australian-security-and-counter-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513449\/","title":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor snaps at journalist as Liberals ramp up rhetoric against Australian children in Syrian camp | Australian security and counter-terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angus Taylor has suggested the Australian children remaining in a Syrian detention camp are \u201cIsis sympathisers\u201d as the Liberal party<\/a> ramps up its rhetoric against the families of dead or jailed Islamic State fighters.<\/p>\n

The opposition leader also chided a member of the press for attempting to force his response on why the group of 23 children and 11 women should be another country\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither you\u2019re an activist or a journalist, you need to make up your mind. You need to make up your mind which one you are,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

In a combative press conference ahead of question time on Monday afternoon, a reporter asked Taylor: \u201cOn branding them Isis sympathisers, do you count the 20-odd children in that group as also being Isis sympathisers?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are Isis sympathisers. Let\u2019s be clear that this is a group who have gone to the Middle East to support Isis \u2026 there is no ambiguity about that,\u201d the opposition leader said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must shut the door to Isis sympathisers. We should have values-based and belief-based tests on who comes into this country and those who believe in this ideology, the Isis ideology, are not welcome in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came as the shadow home affairs minister, Jonathon Duniam, described the under-18 cohort as \u201cso-called children\u201d.<\/p>\n

The group of 34 women and children \u2013 the wives and children of slain or jailed IS fighters \u2013 remain living in al-Roj detention camp in north-eastern Syria where the squalid conditions are described as \u201clife threatening\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the children, who all hold Australian citizenship, were born in the camp and have never left.<\/p>\n

The Guardian spoke with a number of young children<\/a> at the camp last week, including six-year-old Layla, an Australian girl born in the camp who imagined Australia as place with \u201can ice-cream shop\u201d and where Bluey and Bingo live.<\/p>\n

Duniam said it was important to have compassion for the children but suggested, without providing evidence, that many were closer to adulthood in age.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that does not mean we need to sacrifice national security, and at this point in time, I don\u2019t know how many of the cohort, so-called children, are below the age of 17,\u201d Duniam said.<\/p>\n

\" Australian women and children leave Syrian detention camp before being turned back \u2013 video<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people in their minds think this is a bunch of two and three-year olds who are still learning to walk and talk, this is not the cohort we\u2019re talking about. These children are a range of ages, and the government don\u2019t have a handle on what sort of a risk they present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the Passports Act<\/a>, citizens are entitled to a passport but there are some exemptions for people who have an active arrest warrant against them or where someone might \u201cprejudice\u201d the security of the country.<\/p>\n

One woman within the group has been issued with a temporary exclusion order<\/a> in February, banning her entry to Australia for up to two years.<\/p>\n

The Albanese government has insisted it is not actively assisting the group\u2019s repatriation to Australia but conceded there are few avenues available to prevent the group from returning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Coalition has said it will introduce a bill to make it an offence to provide assistance to repatriate people involved in terrorist organisations without prior approval.<\/p>\n

The Greens senator, David Shoebridge, criticised Taylor for using the children as \u201cpolitical pawns\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Angus Taylor<\/a> comes here as the leader of a major political party in this country \u2026 and calls her a terrorist sympathiser, people can see through that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know a little six year old girl, isn\u2019t that, and it does him absolutely no credit to sink to those moral libraries and to try and weaponise kids in a detention camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when Angus Taylor tries to use these children as political pawns like this, he debases politics. He debases his party, and he debases himself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor has suggested the Australian children remaining in a Syrian detention camp are \u201cIsis sympathisers\u201d as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-513449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}