Actions And Consequences

"But the point I want to stress is that criminals will be punished whether they're young, whether they're old, whether they're male, whether they're female, whether they're criminals abroad or criminals at home."
"Criminals will be punished, and to participate in the kind of barbarism that we have seen so often in the Middle East is just wrong. It's morally wrong and it's a crime under Australian law and it will be punished."
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott

"[Government will] take a pragmatic approach in relation to children, particularly infants [deciding about revoking citizenship]."
"There's a common-sense approach here, but if adults have broken the Australian law, if they've involved themselves in killings within Syria or elsewhere, they will face the Australian law."
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, Canberra

The seven-year-old Australian boy who, at the proud behest of his jihadist father fighting with the Islamic State in Syria, made a concerted effort to awkwardly hold up the head of a Syrian soldier by its hair for ISIL propaganda effect has become once again newsworthy. His mother has decided she's had enough of the conflict in Syria and plans to bring her five children back to Sydney.

The conundrum here is how the government of Australia will react to their return. The issue is the protection of Australian citizens and the differentiation between victims of terrorism and terrorists themselves. The woman's husband is Khaled Sharrouf, convicted of terrorism, but born in Sydney. His pride in posting a photograph of his youngest son with arm extended, struggling to hold up the severed head of a man in a gruesome display of barbarism indicts him.

Does it also indict his wife, and the seven-year-old? The ISIL jihadi posted photographs of his three boys in matching camouflage fatigues, miniatures of their father, armed with assault rifles with an Islamic State backdrop. Sharrouf's wife is a convert to Islam. And Tara Nettleton has decided that her three sons and two teenage daughters need to return to Sydney.

Sharrouf also uploaded a photo of him and his sons dressed in identical camouflage fatigues wielding machine guns

As far as the Prime Minister of Australia is concerned the children should appear as juvenile offenders before Australian courts if they are to be accused of taking part in terrorism. It is unknown whether or not Khaled Sharrouf himself plans to return to Australia. His passport was cancelled, he faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism offences, in Australia.

When his wife took their children to Syria she hid their destination from Sydney airport officials. The country's new counterterrorism laws reflect a tough new standard; plans to so much as visit the Islamic State's headquarters of al-Raqqa province in Syria represents a criminal offence whose punishment can be up to ten years in prison.

The passports of dozens of suspected extremists have been cancelled.

The idea is to prevent jihadist aspirants from leaving the country, and it also has the effect of leaving foreign fighters from Australia stranded where they are, in Syria. In the near future for the country is a plan to pass legislation allowing the government to strip citizenship from dual nationals suspected of terrorism, whether or not they are convicted of a crime.