Barnaby Joyce says ISIS brides who are begging to return to Australia need to be viewed as accomplices to their husbands, who committed 'some of the most horrendous acts in modern history'.
The high-profile One Nation recruit and MP for New England said it's 'irrelevant' that the 11 Australian adults seeking to return home from a Syrian refugee camp are women and mothers.
One of those women is Kirsty Rosse-Emile, whose father said she was 'lying' about being duped into supporting IS and that she shouldn't be allowed back into Australia.
The Daily Mail previously revealed Rosse-Emile - who has appeared on national television pleading with the government to 'come and get me' - told her former housemate she wanted to 'make bombs' instead of going to school.
It's understood federal police have launched an investigation as a result of the Daily Mail's report about these comments.
Asked whether the Department of Home Affairs would consider extraordinary measures against Rosse-Emile, potentially excluding her from returning, a spokesperson refused to comment, citing 'privacy considerations'.
However, Joyce told the Daily Mail it doesn't matter that the ISIS brides are women and mothers because their husbands have committed 'horrendous' crimes against innocent people.
He said anyone with knowledge of crimes before or after they're committed, aiding or abetting criminals, or being involved in criminal organisations is an accomplice.
Barnaby Joyce (pictured with his wife, Vikki Campion) says ISIS brides begging to return to Australia need to be viewed as accomplices to their husbands
Kirsty Rosse-Emile is pictured, left, on a bus with other ISIS brides in a failed attempt to flee Syria last week
'This has to be the prism that these actions are seen through,' he said.
'The fact that it's a woman; the fact that they're a mother - that is irrelevant to the fact that their husband could or probably would've been part of some of the most horrendous acts in modern history against defenceless people.'
A number of the women have claimed they were tricked by their husbands into entering Syria or had no choice but to follow their male family members into the war zone.
Joyce said his sympathies lie with the Yazidi refugees who were raped, trafficked, and tortured after being captured by IS before some were resettled in his electorate.
'If anybody has ever got a query about the sympathies that they might now be feeling I can take them to Armidale and I can talk to some of these Yazidi refugees,' he said.
'Then they can ask themselves a question about how much sympathy they feel for the people who are a party to this.'
The Albanese government said the ISIS brides, who have been issued with Australian passports, are free to come home by their own means - but will not assist them.
One of the women is the subject of a temporary exclusion order on national security grounds, which could ban her from entering Australia for two years, but the identity of that woman remains unclear.
Kirsty Rosse-Emile (pictured) married a future IS fighter when she was 14 years old
Pictured: Rosse-Emile, crying while telling the ABC she was tricked into going to Syria
Shadow Minister for Home Affairs Jonno Duniam told the Daily Mail, 'you can't choose to join a death cult in Syria and then expect to come back to Australia just because you have buyer's remorse'.
'Our message to Labor is clear: shut the door,' he said.
'The Government must assure Australians that they will not allow this individual, and the rest of the ISIS brides cohort, to make it to our shores.'
He said Australians don't want ISIS families as neighbours.
Referring to Rosse-Emile, he said: 'Not least this individual who apparently wants to make bombs and went over to Syria to support an Islamist Caliphate hell-bent on destroying western civilisation.'
Rosse-Emile previously claimed she was tricked 12 years ago into entering the war zone with her Islamic State fighter husband Nabil Kadmiry, who she married when she was just 14 years old.
Speaking with the ABC last year, she refused to explain how she ended up in Syria because it 'could create problems for me'.
However, her former housemate Sara* told the Daily Mail on Monday that Rosse-Emile, who was known by her Islamic name Asma, knew exactly what she was doing when she flew to Syria to pledge allegiance to IS.
In 2010, when Rosse-Emile was about 17, she stayed in a self-contained unit attached to Sara's place on the outskirts of Melbourne when a mutual friend asked if she wanted to return to school.
'Asma turned around and said "I don’t want to go to school, I want to go and make bombs",' Sara recalled.
Sara said it didn't matter if Rosse-Emile truly intended to live a quiet life in Australia; it would be difficult for her to shed her extremist beliefs.
Her husband, Nabil Kadmiry, was captured during IS's territorial defeat in 2019 and is believed to be languishing in a Kurdish prison.
Other Australians fighting to return home include Nesrine Zahab and her aunt Aminah Zahab and cousin Sumaya Zahab, along with Kawsar Abbas and her daughters Zeinab and Zahra Ahmed, Janai Safar, Hodan Abby, Kawsar Kanj and Hyam Raad.