Professor Michele Grossman

Look, I think the fact that the attackers in Bondi, you know, align themselves explicitly with Islamic State has reignited public consciousness about the kind of threat that ideologies like Islamic State pose.

And this has fed right into what is at the moment quite a potent threat

I would call even virulent anti-immigration discourse happening in some quarters, both of the political class and also the general public.

So you can see an intersection there, but I don't know that people have hardened to the degree that I would say

There's the kind of moral panic that we perhaps saw in earlier years.

I mean...

In a very basic sense, the Australian government has already fulfilled one of its obligations, which is to provide them with passports.

I think then what you're finding is that the focus shifts slightly because government also has a responsibility to community safety.

and community well-being.

So what government does to help them reintegrate, in my view, is actually government taking responsibility for hold of community safety and well-being, not just for those women and children.

I think when we talk about the women and children, we also have to disaggregate a little bit.

Yes, the women made varying levels of degrees of choice to go.

I mean, in the end, they did go.

and they did make that choice, the children didn't choose.

The children didn't have the agency to choose.

The children did not say, I want to be, you know, in this position.

So I think that we have to really pay out on the difference in terms of the support that we offer for children who, through no fault of their own and through no choice of their own, ended up in the circumstances that they did.

Look, I think it does raise quite a fundamental question.

Were we going to really turn children away and say, through no fault of your own and no choice of your own, you ended up here and you are Australian citizens, but we don't want a bar of you?

What kind of Australia would that make us?