TV interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise - 10 July 2026

Media event date: 10 July 2026 Date published: 10 July 2026 Media type: General public NATALIE BARR, HOST: Pauline Hanson has fired back at Angus Taylor after the Opposition leader delivered his strongest warning yet to Liberal voters to not side with One Nation. Angus blasted the minor party as a one-person show that would cause an eternity of pain. Pauline had this to say.

PAULINE HANSON, ONE NATION LEADER: Angus, I’m not your enemy. You can reflect back on your budget reply speech, you picked up and said a lot of One Nation’s policies. Let’s work together – that’s right, I keep saying it all the time.

The people of Australia are crying out for change. Listen to the people, Angus, and work with me. [End of excerpt] It comes amid long running speculation the Coalition could team up with the minor party. For their take, let’s bring in Jane Hume, Deputy Opposition Leader, and Mark Butler, Health Minister.

Good morning to both of you. Jane, Pauline has asked multiple times to team up. This is a line in the sand.

Can you go to the next election and succeed without the help of One Nation? JANE HUME, DEPUTY OPPOSITION LEADER: I think at the next election, Nat, Australians know that we need a change. Our standard of livings have gone backwards so far and so fast under Labor, people are angry and they're rightly looking for an alternative, but that alternative is not One Nation.

Angus Taylor last night outlined exactly why that is true. But Pauline Hanson has come out today and said that she doesn't believe that Angus Taylor is moving in the right direction. Well, that's just simply not the case.

You know, the reason why One Nation don't cost their policies is because they don't want to know what the answer is. The reason why One Nation doesn't have a plan is because they have a slogan written on the back of a napkin. Their policies will drive the economy into the ground and more importantly, they will be an eternity of pain for Australians who do not deserve that.

What they deserve is a genuine plan that will restore our standard of living and that will protect our way of life. That real plan is what will be delivered under a Liberal government with Angus Taylor. [Talks over] Jane, the problem is, people seem to like the napkin policies at the moment because more people are supporting them than you. So do you think it's a good idea to write them off this early?

Well, Angus Taylor has come up with a credible plan with a credible team, and that was what was delivered first tranche in the budget in reply – a tax-back guarantee so that you don't pay the price for rising interest- for rising inflation when governments get it out of control, a future generations fund to make sure that we use our sovereign wealth. These aren't One Nation policies, these are Liberal policies.

Linking migration to housing, not stopping migration entirely. These policies that One Nation are proposing are simply slogans. They will drive the economy into the ground and it will be an eternity of pain for Australians.

We know we need a change, we know we need a credible plan and a credible team to deliver it – that’s what Angus Taylor’s offering. Okay, let's move on. Tony Burke has said that the government will offer no assistance to a group of 13 Australian men suspected of being ISIS fighters if they are freed from Iraqi prisons.

We, of course, saw this stance when the ISIS brides were due to come back, then they ended up back in this country. Mark, can we come to you – is this a different case? These men are allegedly fighters.

How do we know that they were non-combatants, that they weren't involved in atrocities overseas? MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: As you know, Nat, this is not a new issue, unfortunately. Our security agencies have been dealing with this challenge of people returning from Iraq and Syria now for well over a decade, including the fact that before we came to office, 45 men who had gone there to fight returned to Australia.

Now, our agencies have been putting in place plans to deal with these returns, particularly where they are Australian citizens and have a legal right to come back home. We as the government are applying to the full force, the laws that were put in place by the former government with our support. These are laws that use every ounce of power the Commonwealth has to deal with returning citizens.

Obviously, as Jane knows, there are very strict constitutional limitations on what we can do when citizens try to come back home. Those laws go right to the limit of those Commonwealth powers and our security agencies will be applying them. If these men try to come back home, they certainly will not be getting any assistance from the government to try to come back home.

And if they do cross our borders, they'll be met with the full force of the law, including the possibility of charges being laid. Once they get here. As has happened with the women who came back recently.

Okay. Mark, these are apparently ISIS fighters. If they've been involved in beheadings, will we let them back in?

As I said, this is not new. Before we came to office, 45 men who had gone there to fight have returned back to Australia. So we have to let them back?

It's been made quite clear there are constitutional limitations on any government being able to prevent an Australian citizen coming back. There are laws in place that allow temporary exclusion orders. Those laws were put in place by the former government with our support.

They were examined very closely by the Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security and supported by that bipartisan committee because we know we simply don't have the constitutional power to prevent forever and a day Australian citizens coming back. That's really the challenge that our security and intelligence agencies have been dealing with now for more than a decade.

So even if they've carried out atrocities, which we've seen the pictures ISIS brides. Every Australian has seen those awful pictures, Mark. Even those people, we can't put them in that category that they may carry out a terror attack or that they are so bad they won't be allowed in this country.

No, they can be subject to exclusion orders when the intelligence and security agencies give us that advice. That provision was put in by the former government. It’s legally sound and we will use it if we get that advice.

And as has happened with the women who returned earlier this year, if there's evidence that they have committed crimes while overseas, then they will be prosecuted. They have been charged with offences, including slavery offences, those women. And of course, the same would happen to men.

This is not new, unfortunately. We've been dealing with this for more than a decade since some of these people took the awful decision We have to let them in. … to go and fight with this caliphate, including 45 men Well, hang on. Those women are out on bail. … who came before we took office in 2022.

Yeah, Jane, it sounds like the laws say we have to let them back in. Well, Labor can't simply wash their hands and say, we're not doing anything about this. We saw with the ISIS brides that there was evasion, there was duplicity, there was secrecy.

What we want to know is, what is the plan for these people? If they are going to come back for Australia, well, what are you going to do with them? Do they pose a danger to the country?

You can't simply deal with this as a political problem. This is a national security problem and simply … What did you do, Jane, when your government brought back in the fighters? We had a plan on what it is that we were going to do with them, what we were going to charge those men the moment they got onto our shores.

And that was exactly what happened. They are not posing a threat to the country because they're behind bars. What are you going to do with them, Mark?

Because you simply say, well, we're not going to help bring them back, but what's the plan when they do come back? If you can't prevent them coming back- you know, with the ISIS brides, they came to the shore, you said, oh, whoops, they're here, now we have to do something. Final word, Mark.

And Jane, we provided you with the bipartisan support alternative parties of government should each other. We're applying the same plans that were developed under your time in government by the same intelligence So what’s happening to them? … and security agencies. We didn't play politics with this.

We recognised this is a complex issue. National security problem. And our government, like your government, we respected that, do everything they can to protect the security of the Australian people.

And of course that's what we'll do. Okay. Thank you very much.

We'll see you next week. The Hon Mark Butler MP About the department Accessibility We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present. © Commonwealth of Australia