Woman in Syrian detention camp returning to Australia
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has revealed the woman held in a Syrian detention camp who was issued a temporary exclusion order, barring her from entering Australia, has applied for and been granted a return permit.
Burke said the woman will be under “every possible condition” – including monitoring where she lives, works, if she studies, and will be restricted from using any telecommunications device including a mobile phone or pay phone, unless she gives 24 hours notice and provides a reason for use.
Speaking to ABC’s AM program, Burke said she was the last remaining woman who was in the camp:
The temporary exclusion order applies until a permit is issued. And when a permit is requested, a permit lawfully has to be issued.
I’ve been working through with my department, my agencies, Australian federal police and Asio, and with the lawyers to see every possible condition we can put on that permit … But we received the final advice yesterday that we can no longer have an exclusion condition any longer for her.
There will be a very high level of scrutiny and surveillance … that’s the absolute legal limit we’ve been able to go to and our agencies are ready.
Key events
Advance and Plymouth Brethren Christian church forced to front election inquiry
Sarah Basford Canales
Right-wing lobby group Advance and the Plymouth Brethren Christian church will be forced to attend public hearings into the 2025 federal election if they decline to come forward voluntarily, a parliamentary committee says.
The joint parliamentary committee into electoral matters said it would issue a summons to compel the groups in a move it acknowledged as “an extraordinary step, but one it believes necessary”.
In a media release this morning, the committee said it had decided yesterday to invite the groups once more to appear before it as part of its review into the 2025 federal election. The committee said both groups had declined to appear at previous hearings in November 2025, and March and May 2026.
The committee said:
Given the volume of submissions the committee has received, and the level of community concern about their involvement in the electoral process, it is not just in the committee’s interest, but Australia’s interest, to understand the involvement of both of these third parties in the 2025 federal election and their influence on the electoral process.
The bells are ringing and they won’t stop for a while today
We’re going to be hear a lot of bells in the Senate today on the government’s tax changes to CGT and negative gearing.
Right now they’re voting on whether to give the bill a second reading – once they vote, it opens up debate on the legislation itself (and there will be plenty of senators wanting to talk).
The opposition are trying to move an amendment to the vote for the second reading to get the government to support indexing tax brackets to end bracket creep. It’s a policy Angus Taylor announced in his budget reply, and a little wedge so the opposition can say the government supports bracket creep. It’ll get voted down.
Once we’re on to the second reading, there’s at least 20 amendments to the bill itself – ten from David Pocock alone, a couple from the Greens, One Nation, Jacqui Lambie and the opposition.
It’s going to be a long day in the Senate.
Teal party offering ‘solutions’, Spender and Steggall say
Allegra Spender says she and Zali Steggall see an opportunity to get more communities involved in politics, and choosing local candidates, but promises there won’t be any “in-fighting” in the party.
So far there’s just two members of the Community Strong party, with other teal independents ruling themselves out for now.
The two are holding a press conference in Canberra. Steggall says the party will remain committed to its values, which she told RN Breakfast earlier was sensible economic management, climate action, integrity and equality.
Spender says:
That’s what people have asked me for. They have said we don’t want the infighting, we don’t want the blame game, we want solutions that will make a difference to us, and we want, we see that there is more common ground in Australia than there is division. We don’t want to import culture wars from the US.
We see an opportunity to do more, to get more communities involved and more communities at the heart of politics, because we think this is the different way that Australians are asking us to represent them, put them first, but work constructively with the experts, with people with real experience in lives outside of politics and the community to come up solutions with their problems.
Clare introduces legislation to reform university student funding
Australian universities could face a funding overhaul, with the government this morning introducing a bill to established a “managed growth” system which will reform the allocation of student places and funding to universities, and provide needs-based funding for students from regional and rural areas, and low socioeconomic backgrounds.
The education minister, Jason Clare, says the reform is part of the Universities Accord agenda, and the allocation to universities – which will see an overall increase in places – will be overseen by the newly legislated Australian Tertiary Education Commission.
Some universities in Sydney have raised concerns that it will result in places being diverted towards regional universities, and allow less student places in the cities.
But the government argues it will lead to a more equitable system for students of all backgrounds.
This morning, Clare told ABC News Breakfast:
About 50% of young Australians in their 30s today have a university degree. But, it’s not the case everywhere. It’s not the case in Western Sydney, where I grew up. It’s about half that. It’s the same in the regions and it’s even lower in the bush. That’s not because of a lack of talent, talent is everywhere. It’s opportunity that is not. And education can help to change that.
‘Australia should have these women return to Australia’: Shoebridge
Greens senator David Shoebridge says the countries who defeated Islamic State have been pleading with Australia to take responsibility for the cohort of women and children who have been stuck in a Syrian detention camp.
The government announced this morning the last Australian woman in that camp – who had been subject to a temporary exclusion order – has now been issued a permit by authorities to return.
Shoebridge says that whichever way you slice it or dice it (paraphrased), Australian citizens do have a fundamental right to return to the country.
He tells Sky News:
That’s one of the most fundamental and important rights that Australian citizens have, and I know that there are people who want to take that right away from citizens, people largely in the right of politics.
And the people who defeated [Islamic State] have said to Australia, “You need to be responsible for your own people. It’s not right to not take responsibility for your own people.” And Australia should have these women return to Australia. And they also said that it’s appalling that Australia won’t look after their own children and won’t receive the children back.
‘Edges of the mainstream’: Albanese says Stefanovic case shows risk of extreme voices
Tom McIlroy
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has alluded to TV presenter Karl Stefanovic’s apparent ouster from Nine, suggesting the Today host went too far to the edges of the mainstream debate.
Nine Entertainment is expected to cut ties with the highly paid host turned podcast presenter after he interviewed and embraced UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, was interviewed for Stefanovic’s podcast in London. A far-right campaigner, anti-immigration and anti-Islam activist in the UK, he co-founded the English Defence League group.
Robinson has convictions for assault, mortgage fraud, using a false passport and contempt of court. An organiser of large public rallies, Robinson was jailed in October 2024 after he ignored a court order not to repeat lies about a Syrian refugee, who had successfully sued him for libel.
Speaking at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event at Parliament House on Thursday, Albanese said he would steer clear of the debate engulfing Nine, but issued a warning to personalities like Stefanovic straying too far from the mainstream.
Look at what’s happened … You go down that road and you go further and further out on the edges of what is mainstream political debate in this country, and you know, I think that can have an impact.
Josh Butler
Coalition questions ‘political stitch-up’ on NDIS inquiry
The Coalition is questioning the future of Labor’s NDIS legislation, with Melissa McIntosh critical that there were “no details” about the deal with the Greens to extend an inquiry.
This week, Labor and the Greens agreed on a deal to pass the government’s tax changes and to extend the inquiry into the NDIS until mid-August. But the NDIS cuts are still almost sure to pass soon after with the support of the Coalition.
McIntosh, the shadow NDIS minister, said she had “long expressed my concerns around this particular piece of legislation, and this highlights the playing of politics when it comes to people’s lives in this place, and this is the thing that people are fed up with”.
“The Greens and Labor have done a deal in the Senate to extend the inquiry into the NDIS legislation, but there’s no details,” she told Sky News.
We don’t know if that means that Australians will get a chance to have their say for an extended period. Right now, it’s only a few hundred submissions from the inquiry initially loaded on to the government’s website when over 4000 people have made a submission. So, no details.
Is this a real inquiry or is this just a bit of a political stitch-up on the NDIS?
I don’t like the way it smells.
McIntosh also complained that the government’s reform “doesn’t address the criminals in the scheme”.
The government is focusing on those people with disabilities, profound disabilities, who are so scared. And they have said to us, to the parliamentarians in this place, that they’re worried people will die. So that’s really serious. And I think the government has got its focus really wrong.
Wilson ‘not the least bit concerned’ about new teal party
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, says he’s not at all concerned about the new Community Strong party formed by Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender.
At a doorstop in the press gallery corridor, Wilson has to ask a journalist what the name of the party is and what they actually stand for.
After receiving some answers, he says:
I’m not the least bit concerned about a party I can’t remember the name of, nobody seems to be able to state what they believe in, except for themselves.
Liberal frontbencher James Paterson says that he credits Spender and Steggall for being “open and honest” about what they are, but also dismisses any threat.
I wish them all the best, but if they can’t even convince the teal MPs in parliament to join their party, I think they’re going to really struggle to convince Australians to vote for their party. I mean, when you’ve got people like Monique Ryan and others, Kate Chaney, say that they’ve got no interest in joining the teal party, I think that’s pretty revealing.
James Paterson ridicules ‘tortured explanation’ over return of Islamic State-linked woman
The shadow defence minister, James Paterson, says the government should have done more to stop an Islamic State-linked woman in a Syrian detention camp from being allowed to return to Australia.
Tony Burke revealed this morning the woman, who was previously subject to a temporary exclusion order, had applied for a return permit and been granted it by authorities. He said:
We received the final advice yesterday that we can no longer have an exclusion condition any longer for her. We’ve checked with our agencies, they are ready. So that permit gets issued.
Paterson called it a “tortured explanation” and accused the government of not pulling every lever it could to stop the woman coming back.
It was a rather tortured explanation from the minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, about why this wasn’t his fault
Some of those [women], upon return to Australia, have been charged with crimes against humanity, including human trafficking. I mean, these are not good people. They are not welcome in our country. And the Albanese government, once again, is not doing everything they can to protect our country by keeping these people out of it.
But Burke pointed out in his interview on AM earlier that 45 men who went to fight for Islamic State had been allowed back into Australia before the Albanese government was even elected.
Hanson offers Stefanovic a job in her office
Josh Butler
Pauline Hanson has offered Karl Stefanovic a job in her political office, with reports the Channel Nine host will leave his role on the Today show after conducting a controversial interview on his personal podcast project with far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
The One Nation leader, speaking to Sky News on Wednesday night, claimed Nine would be “bloody stupid” to let Stefanovic go, claiming he was a ratings winner for the network.
“They’ve gone so far to the left, Channel Nine. They’re making a big mistake,” Hanson told Sky host Andrew Bolt.
Hey guess what Karl? I’m looking for someone in my office. I want some advisers in my office. So Karl, come and apply for a job with me. We’ll have a great time. We’ll put them all on notice and get the country back on track … I’m looking for some good staff, advisers.
Stefanovic has conducted multiple interviews with Hanson, and her other One Nation colleagues, on his podcast. The host, broadcasting from London this week, yesterday published another interview with Barnaby Joyce.
Taylor dismisses frustration among his MPs over multiculturalism fumble
MPs came out swinging yesterday – from moderate and senior frontbencher Anne Ruston to deputy leader Jane Hume – to completely back multiculturalism in Australia, while others have privately expressed concern that Taylor isn’t doing enough to separate the Coalition from One Nation.
Labor has been exploiting an attack line on Taylor, telling him that he can’t “out One Nation, One Nation”, particularly over migration.
Asked about reports of the frustration, Taylor tries to bat it off.
Well, I think all of us absolutely reject Labor’s version, Labor’s multiculturalism, which is different rules for different people
I’m not going to comment on anonymous backgrounding. I don’t do that. What I focus on is our plan, holding Labor to account and with respect to the issue we were just talking about, you know, a multiculturalism that says you can have different rules for different people – that’s not what Australia is.
‘I don’t want Australia to look like Japan’: Taylor
Angus Taylor is still being dogged by his sidestepping of five question over whether he supports multiculturalism at a press conference on Tuesday, and has doubled down saying he supports “a version” of it.
Both Taylor and Pauline Hanson, who introduced the monoculture can of worms at her National Press Club address last week, have spend recent days trying to rewrite some of their messaging.
On Tuesday, Hanson said Japan was monocultural and asked why Australia could not be the same (which she somewhat walked back later).
And by Wednesday Hanson even claimed the Socceroos were an example of her version of monoculturalism (a team almost everyone else has celebrated as a great example of Australian multiculturalism).
Taylor told the Today show this morning that Australia shouldn’t look like a monocultural Japan, but still added some qualifiers on supporting multiculturalism.
The version of multiculturalism I believe in for this country is one where we come from across the world. Australians come, have ancestries that go back to all parts of the world, and yet there are real expectations that we have a common set of values, that those who come here contribute to the country.
And that is the version, that is the multiculturalism I believe in. I don’t know what monoculture means. I hear, in the last day or so it’s something like looking like Japan. I don’t want Australia to look like Japan. I want Australia to look like Australia.
How will the Community Strong Australia party be funded?
Show me the money!
That’s the big question hanging over the group – but Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall say that it will be community backed, and not funded by Climate 200.
Steggall says the money is “going to need to be built from the ground up.”
Asked whether major teal donors Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brooks will back the new party, Steggall initially avoids the question, but after a push by host, Sally Sara, Spender answers “no”.
Steggall does the majority of the speaking in the interview:
It will be for individuals who care about our politics, who will have the capacity to contribute, whether that be big or small, to enable a new choice at the table of our politics.
‘Australia is at a crossroads politically’: Steggall and Spender launch party
The women behind the new Community Strong Australia party are in the hot seat(s) on RN Breakfast, to launch their new party which they say will be centrist and give all their members a free vote.
Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender also say there won’t be a leader (at least until they build their party to 10 MPs and senators).
Steggall promises the party will be focused on the same “core pillars” that the teals have pushed – sensible economic management, climate action, integrity and equality.
She says:
I think Australia is at a crossroads politically where many people in our communities feel really unheard and feel that the major parties are out of touch, excuse me, but also are worried about the growing level of disunity and anger and some of the very divisive rhetoric that comes out of politicians in this place.
Steggall says the party will be like a sports team (which famously, do have captains/leaders), because “there is no capacity to deliver a performance without everyone pulling their weight and everything doing well. I think we all bring different skills and attributes to the table.”
‘Be careful how you protest,’ says Burgess
Burgess says the war in the Middle East has “added to the frustrations and anger in society” but the issue is broader.
He tells RN Breakfast society is now “quick to anger” and that the “level of tolerance is not what it used to be”, warning people to be careful in how they protest and cautioning the media against clickbait headlines that drive anger.
Burgess says:
There’s a number of drivers behind this and not one single ideology. And there’s something else that’s gone on in society where we’re quick to anger. We don’t debate. The level of tolerance is not what it used to be.
If people just took the heat out of the debate, by all means protest, but be careful how you protest. For the media, certainly continue to do your job, but be careful how you do your job. For any of us, including myself. Well, you know, the clickbait of media these days, no offence to anyone, but those headlines drive anger. And actually, when you see people get angry, there is a direct correlation in these modern times between anger and language, inflame language, inflame tension, and violence.
Iran state-sponsored terrorism a ‘pressing and ongoing concern’: Burgess
The Asio director-general, Mike Burgess, tells RN Breakfast he’s concerned about the ongoing threat of state-sponsored terrorism by Iran. Burgess revealed last year that his agency believed Iran was behind at least two antisemitic attacks in Australia.
Burgess says:
That is a pressing and ongoing concern. Earlier this year in Europe, Iran-backed groups conducted attacks in Europe and we’re concerned that those operations will expand into this region, including Australia, and that could result in more arsons and even death of Australians.
Last night he broadly revealed the agency had foiled 31 major terror plots, including one major plot since the Bondi terror attack.
Burgess also defended the agency’s resourcing, after the royal commission into antisemitism revealed the proportion of funding allocated to counter-terrorism significantly declined from 2020 to 2025, despite funding to intelligence agencies increasing overall.
The director-general said:
For Asio, we increased our resources on counter-terrorism when we raised the threat level in August [2024] and we increased in the months before Bondi.
Burgess says he’s still concerned about the threat of antisemitic attacks, but that the threat is broader, and faces all Australians.
Burgess says Asio ‘ready for the return’ of Isis-linked woman
Mike Burgess says Asio has been involved and is ready for the arrival of the Isis-linked woman, who has been granted a return permit and will be the final woman to leave the Syrian detention camp.
The woman, who was previously handed a temporary exclusion order, later applied for a return permit, which was granted by authorities. The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, revealed the news just moments ago.
Burgess says:
Of course we were involved, and yes, I’m satisfied that my organisation is ready for the return.
Asio is not all-seeing and all-knowing and we don’t want to be, but I can assure your listeners that actually the full use of my organisation’s capability and powers will be used when this individual returns to this country.
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