Ill-prepared Sussan Ley left stranded and outwitted on ISIS brides and Optus crisis

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley in question time on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Sussan Ley came to the issue of ISIS brides too late, ill-prepared and without conviction.

As potential peace in the Middle East dominates the world and political agenda and frames the public debate in Australia, the Opposition Leader chose the catastrophic Optus triple-0 outage as the Coalition’s main point of parliamentary attack at the start of final sittings for 2025, despite pressure from Liberal senators at estimates committee meetings revealing a politically plausible argument that Anthony Albanese had misled parliament over his claim the government had provided no “assistance” to the group of women and children to settle in Victoria last month.

Indeed, after two days of being missing in action from Ley on the re-entry of the ISIS brides, it was independent western Sydney MP Dai Le who asked for a guarantee that people in her electorate of Fowler who had suffered terribly at the hands of Islamic State would not face a threat in their new homes.

Tony Burke, as Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, pilloried the Coalition for not asking the question and had a prepared if vulnerable argument that the government had not “repatriated” the group as it was revealed in the Senate there had been “assistance”, including the issuing of passports, to the group.

The government defence relied on word games, split hairs and a counter-attack accusing the opposition of urging the government to break the law and lacking faith in the Australian Federal Police.

It was classic parliamentary bravado that was vulnerable to carefully planned pursuit and prosecution on an issue that was all the opposition had.

On Thursday morning, clearly believing there was more political mileage in the triple-0 debacle, Ley didn’t change course but the traditional round of her media appearances on Thursday demonstrated the triple-0 problems were well behind the ISIS brides as an issue.

At a time when Ley is trying to reformulate Coalition policy, it is essential the opposition demonstrate a spirit and taste for political engagement on the hot button issues of the day. Labor has successfully – and easily – been able to deflect heat from the fatal failure of Optus.

It’s not hard to demonise and blame a big telco and even the PM raised the issue with the visiting Singaporean Prime Minister as evidence of Labor’s determination to prosecute the case against Optus and introduce tougher laws.

When asked about the ISIS issue on TV, Ley mounted an argument that a Coalition government would have stopped the cohort coming back – a difficult task since they were Australian citizens and there is no evidence of any involvement in terrorism.

By the time Ley entered question time, the triple-0 problem was gone, she’d changed horses between Wednesday in parliament and Thursday on TV, and amid a mix of questions failed to go near landing a punch on Albanese or Burke.

Sloppy questions, vague references and a clear lack of commitment left her at the end of what was always going to be a difficult week stranded and politically outwitted, with Labor unscathed on the Optus outage or lack of transparency over the arrival of ISIS brides.

Labor’s dominance makes it almost impossible for the Coalition but it doesn’t help when you pull the wrong rein on the issue of the week.