Deputy opposition leader also critical of Albanese government

Jane Hume, the deputy leader of the opposition, said while the Coalition has great faith in the authorities when it came to the group of women and children with links to the Islamic State, concerns remained with the Albanese government.

Hume told RN:

They’ve said one thing and done the other. They said they didn’t want these people to return to Australia, and yet at the same time, they didn’t stop them getting passports … They didn’t use temporary exclusion orders …

I think the Australian taxpayer has the right to know that the government has done everything in its power to prevent them coming here, to prevent that cost occurring and to keep Australians safe.

Gallagher says Australia will ‘spend what we need to’ regarding Syrian returnees

Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, is speaking about the Syrian returnee cohort now on RN. She said the arrests yesterday and the government response to the women’s return had been managed “absolutely appropriately by the police and by our intelligence agencies”.

Gallagher was asked about the children in the group and if they were responsible for their situation. She had this to say:

The parents of these children have made a terrible decision to either take those children or have children in these camps or in these war zones. And those children I think are going to need a lot of assistance to reintegrate into Australia.

They are Australian citizens. They obviously have entitlement to Australian citizenship. But we would support the efforts of the state governments, the police, and the intelligence agencies to make sure those children are supported and managed appropriately.

Gallagher was also asked about reported figures that it could cost up to $2m per person to provide monitoring and countering violent extremism programs to those in the cohort. Gallagher responded:

We will spend what we need to spend to keep Australians safe. I would suggest that the opposition would have done exactly the same when they were in government.

‘There’s a concern, obviously’: Canavan critical after women and children with links to Islamic State return

Nationals leader Matt Canavan said concerns remained after a cohort of 13 women and children with links to the Islamic State returned to Australia yesterday, pointing to the three arrests of women at airports in Sydney and Melbourne on arrival.

Canavan spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying the government should have used all the powers it had to “slow this process down”:

I think there’s a concern, obviously, there’s a risk here. That risk is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the government has charged three of these returning people.

I’m not exactly sure why the government wouldn’t use the powers that exist, the temporary exclusion orders, if these people are big enough risks to be charged in the way they have … last night, why wouldn’t you use the powers to keep Australians safe, to keep them out of this country for a bit longer while we work?

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, maintained that the standard to impose a temporary exclusion order was extremely high and just one woman had been barred from returning to Australia back in February. The government said repeatedly it did not help with any repatriation efforts for the cohort that returned yesterday. Canavan added:

I think what’s really important now is that the prime minister come out today and explain how this has helped [the] safety of Australians.

Victorian opposition proposes hiring freeze to tackle state debt

The Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, will announce a plan to implement an indefinite hiring freeze across all back-office public service roles if elected in November, in an effort to bring down the state’s ballooning debt.

Wilson will announce the plan at a Liberal party fundraiser today, which she will say could save taxpayers $22bn over a decade.

She said the hiring freeze would affect 46 government departments and agencies but excludes frontline roles such as teachers, nurses and police. She said the savings would be achieved through “natural attrition,” which involves not hiring replacements when people leave their positions.

The opposition said the hiring freeze will remain in effect until Victorian public service staffing levels return to the population-adjusted equivalent of 2014-15 levels.

Wilson said in a statement:

Rightsizing back-office public service roles is a difficult, but necessary measure I am willing to take to guarantee essential services and repair Victoria’s finances.

Tuesday’s budget showed a $727m operating surplus this financial year and forecasts further surpluses each year across the forward estimates.

But it also forecasts that debt will grow from $165.3bn in June 2026 to $199.3bn in 2029-30. By then, interest payments on state debt are forecast to total $11.82bn – or $32m a day.

About 35% of the government’s revenue in the coming financial year – $41.13bn – is expected to be spent on public sector wages. This is despite the government committing in December to a plan to slash 1,000 public sector jobs in December, including 300 executives, and merge several entities.