Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has refused to confirm what intelligence agencies have found regarding the ISIS brides after being asked multiple times whether they posed a security threat.
Burke appeared on ABC's Insiders program on Sunday morning when host David Speers asked him three times if the 11 women and 23 children, linked to Islamic State members, could be dangerous.
'The cohort is not consistent; there are very different people with different histories and different states of mind, if I put it in those terms,' Burke said.
'Our agencies have been following them for a long time - the fact that one person has been pulled out for a temporary exclusion order is because, quite specifically, of what we know of that individual.
'I can give the complete confidence to the Australian community [that] we know the different individuals, we know the state of mind and the effective ideology of different individuals.
'They are not a coherent cohort and that is why the person where a temporary exclusion order has been issued, is in a different category to other members of that group.'
Burke had confirmed earlier in the week that one of the brides had been slapped with a temporary ban following advice from security agencies.
When asked by Speers if other members of the group could face similar bans, Burke replied: 'We never stop collecting information on people.'
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke refused to confirm what Australia's intelligence agencies have found on the 34 women and children seeking to return home
ABC Insiders host David Speers asked Burke three times if the ISIS brides were dangerous
'If the agencies decide it's in the interest of public safety for additional orders to be issued, they'd be issued straight away,' he said. 'Unlike my opponents, I take the advice of these agencies really seriously... their advice matters.
'The moment their advice came to me on this one person, I worked through it and the temporary exclusion order was issued.'
Speers asked: 'So, neither you nor ASIO has concluded the 33 who didn't get a temporary exclusion met the threshold and therefore pose a threat to Australia?'
Burke said: 'Right now, nothing further has been presented to me.'
Speers pressed: 'They don't pose a threat to Australia?'
Burke replied: 'On the information we have, the best way to protect Australians has not involved any further temporary exclusion orders.'
Speers asked again: 'They don't pose a threat to Australia?', to which Burke said,' 'That's right you need to make sure you got the best way of protecting Australians. That's what our agencies do.'
During the interview, Burke also confirmed the brides had been interviewed by Australian officials on the ground in 2022 during a previous repatriation effort.
The women and 23 children - all linked to Islamic State members - were granted documents to travel to Australia
Speers asked what would happen if the camp closed before the families left.
'Well, the people will be in an intolerable position entirely through actions they themselves took, entirely through shocking decisions that those parents made,' Burke replied.
He also confirmed the majority of the women were born in Australia.
