TV interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise – 8 May 2026

MONIQUE WRIGHT, HOST: Well, returning to our top story now, three women with links to Islamic State fighters will be charged with crimes against humanity after arriving back in Australia from Syria. Their return, along with nine children, sparking questions about how the families will be rehabilitated and who will pick up the bill. For more, we're joined now by Health Minister Mark Butler and Liberal Senator Jane Hume. Morning to you both.
 
Okay, let's start with you, Mark. It'd be great to get some transparency now. Now that they're back here, what is the process of rehabilitation? What does surveillance look like? How much is it going to cost?
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: As we had been warning these women for some time now, if they were to make their own way back to Australia, they'd face the full consequences of their actions, including legal consequences. And already, in a matter of hours, they've been charged with enslavement offences, membership of a terrorist organisation and being in a declared area. And that really follows more than a decade of intelligence and evidence gathering by our national security agencies under our government and under the government that Jane was a part of, the best agencies on the planet.
 
As to what else will happen beyond the charges that are being laid by the police, particularly de-radicalisation of the children who have been placed in these awful circumstances by their parents, again, the Minister and our security leads, the head of the AFP, the head of ASIO, have been clear we've got well-established plans to do that. Our security agencies won't outline all of those plans. They never do. Obviously, they want to keep some things confidential to protect the integrity of their operations. But people should feel very confident that under both governments, the former government and under ours, our security agencies have been preparing for this day for more than a decade. The former government brought 40 people back. They had those plans in place. We supported -
 
SENATOR JANE HUME: Children, Mark. We brought children back.
 
BUTLER: No, you brought fighters back as well, Jane. There were fighters brought back under your government, Jane.
 
WRIGHT: Alright.
 
BUTLER: Not just wives, but fighters as well.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, just before we move on to Jane, I just want to be clear about the cost here, because as you say, there's been more than a decade to work this out. We had former New South Wales Police Superintendent Rob Critchlow on the program yesterday, who put the surveillance cost at around $2 million per person, and we're looking at a year, just for a year here. What cost is the government putting on this? How much is it going to cost the taxpayer to surveil these people?
 
BUTLER: Unfortunately, we have to resource our agencies to monitor risks to the community, whether they are risks from people who've committed offences in Australia or overseas.
 
WRIGHT: Sure, but how much?
 
BUTLER: I can't tell you the exact cost because as I said, our agencies are not going to publish every single aspect of their operations to keep our community safe. They never do. But your listeners, your viewers can be confident that these plans are well established, they've been worked on for years, and they will be the best possible plans to keep our community safe.
 
WRIGHT: Okay. Millions?
 
BUTLER: Look, I can't put a number on it, Mon. I just can't. All I can say is significant taxpayer resources, through policing agencies, at a state and federal level, through intelligence agencies, of course are deployed to keep our community safe, particularly at a time of real volatility in the world.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, Jane, we just talked about the kids there. A lot of us are thinking about those kids. How on earth do they rehabilitate here? What would the Opposition have done differently to what the government did, hamstrung by our current laws?
 
HUME: Well, the first thing we wouldn't have done is allow somebody as a third party to bring these people back to Australia. These people who have now been charged with very serious offences. The last time the Albanese Government brought back an ISIS bride and said that they would face the full force of the law, well, they were given a good behaviour bond and a slap over the wrist. That's simply not good enough in these circumstances.
 
WRIGHT: Sorry, Jane, what law would you use to stop them coming back?
 
HUME: Well, the Passports Act does allow the Minister to deny a passport to somebody that could potentially pose a threat to Australia. There are temporary exclusion orders that could have been used but the Minister chose not to. We're astounded that these people have been allowed to come back onto our shores so easily, with the use of a third party, somebody that is an active supporter of Tony Burke, a friend of Tony Burke, the Minister responsible for this.
 
Do you know, I met with a young Yazidi woman just the other day. Martine was her name. Now, she's a young woman now, but she was one of those young people that were enslaved by a group just like this one when she was eight years old. The trauma that this woman has gone through, she's now resettled in Australia and started her life in Wagga, but the trauma that this woman has gone through is unimaginable. And now, people that are just like her captors have been invited back here to establish their lives. If they don't face not just the full force of the law, but an appropriate punishment for these heinous crimes, well, that's on this government.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, alright. Obviously, it's going to dominate headlines for weeks, for a long period of time. Mark, we do want to ask you about another headline this morning, and that is the hantavirus, which there's been an outbreak on this cruise ship. Now, can you confirm there are four Aussies on board at the moment, and none of them have returned back to Australia yet?
 
BUTLER: Yeah, that's my advice, Mon. There are four Australians on board. I feel just terribly for them. It must be an awful situation for them and everyone else stuck on this cruise ship. Three people have died of this hantavirus. As we understand it, all Australians are still on board. We're obviously providing them with consular assistance. And when ultimately they return to Australia, as I'm sure they want to do at some point, obviously we have very clear systems in place to make sure they're able to do so safely.
 
WRIGHT: Yeah, okay. Alright. Thank you for that update from the Health Minister. Before we let you go, of course, Sunday, it's Mother's Day. Jane, what do you want, from mum to mum?
 
HUME: I'd really like to win the Farrer by-election I think that'd be a really good Mother's Day present if I wake up on Sunday morning.
 
WRIGHT: That’s Saturday.
 
HUME: Yeah, but I'll wake up on Sunday. And believe it or not, my middle son is coming up to campaign with me in Farrer this weekend, so that’s a bit of a treat.
 
WRIGHT: Oh, really? Okay, so working towards that.
 
HUME: That's right. I'm going to tell him that he's nearly my favourite, which is what I tell all of my children.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, Mark, look, for us mums, we want something, not too much. We want to be left alone, but not left alone too much. Is it difficult to get it right on Mother's Day?
 
BUTLER: It's always difficult. I'm seeing my mum on the weekend, obviously, and my four-year-old and I are cooking up plans for his mum as well on Sunday morning, but he swore me to secrecy. So I can't say anything more about that, Mon, except to wish you and Jane and all the mums out there a happy, happy Mother's Day.
 
HUME: Thank you.
 
WRIGHT: Thank you. Good luck to all of the blokes out there that have to try and get it right on Mother's Day. Thank you both. Have a good weekend. Happy Mother's Day, Jane.