To let ISIS children in to Australia is stupid! We will pay like Germany is paying for Merkel's stuff ups. Nearly 1 million rapist refugees!

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Dear Philip S,

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It seems only right to me that, like every other country in the world, Australia should and must assume responsibility for its own citizens who become terrorists, jihadists, murderers, rapists, torturers, kidnappers, drug dealers, slave traffickers, etc.

I do not see why Australia should assume responsibility for criminals who are foreign nationals. By the same token, I do not see why some other country should assume responsibility for criminals who are Australian citizens.

Children who have at least one parent who is an Australian citizen have the right to take Australian nationality and I, personally, should vote against any referendum to change that law, even if it were to apply exclusively to children whose parents were terrorists, jihadists or other major criminals.

The right to a "fair go" is the thing almost all Australians put at the top of their list when it comes to values. “Sympathy with the under-dog” is another of our declared values. They are a part of our national identity. If we are not prepared to apply them to children whose parents are terrorists, jihadists or other major criminals, then we might as well forget it. That is not the Australia that I want.

While I am totally opposed to the inhuman methods currently employed by our federal government in respect of illegal migrants, we obviously need to exercise effective control of our borders. A priori, the federal government’s announced policy on the acceptance of the children of Australian citizens who are terrorists, jihadists or other major criminals seems to me to be perfectly responsible and in accordance with our basic values and principles as a free, democratic nation.

In December 2015, amendments were made to citizenship legislation to strip members of terrorist organisations of their Australian citizenship, provided it does not leave them stateless. Not all Australians agree with this. I do, but not as it applies to children :

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/05/isis-members-can-now-be-stripped-of-australian-citizenship

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-11/islamic-state-fighter-khaled-sharrouf-stripped-of-citizenship/8262268

Regrettably, our old, obsolete colonial constitution does not indicate what it means to be a “citizen” of Australia. We were all “subjects” in 1901.

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"Is terrorism hereditary?"
- Yep, it is.

//- Yep, it is.//

Unless you're Irish or British? How does that work?

Obviously you know more about this genetics stuff than I do, Oh Bottomless Font of All Worldly Knowledge. So how do the Poms/Paddies who have the terrorist gene avoid passing it onto their children the way that, say, an American terrorist would?

And if we know about the existence of the terrorist gene, why don't we just work out which one it is, test children for it at birth, and then pre-emptively incarcerate them for their entire life?

Banjo Paterson

Quote "“Sympathy with the under-dog” is another of our declared values. They are a part of our national identity." I would agree with this but over the years we have been taken advantage of by so called refugees and others that this trait is not as it used to be.

Quote "We were all “subjects”" This one I do not agree with insofar as most Governments worldwide think they OWN there citizens and can control them where ever in the world they are. For example you can be jailed for just visiting certain countries as well as jailed in one country for breaking there laws then when you come back home they will prosecute and jail you as well.

When a person has dual citizenship who determines which one the child goes to?

Toni,

To take your idea of terrorist genes a bit further, if one bothered, one might try to isolate the population which may be prone to carrying this gene. Is there such a population ? If so, then why has this gene come to the fore only over the past few decades ? Is it a sort of sleeper gene ? Does it only manifest itself every few generations ? Like this one ?

Of course, groups living close by each other over many centuries would come to share such a gene: has it manifested itself in related populations in their common home regions ? Hmmm, why not, I wonder ? Is there a sort of counter-gene, especially prevalent in those other populations ?

Are you suggesting that the population in which this gene is prevalent should be subjected to the medical/genetic removal of this gene ? Or just the fathers, or the mothers ? Can it be traced through the Y chromosome, thus freeing the women in this population from any need for surgery ?

But if, as you claim, terrorism is the consequence of people having a specific gene, the alternative to surgery may be, as you suggest, lifelong incarceration. How many adults - who may pass on this gene - and young people would have to be incarcerated as a result of your recommendations ?

Or could there possibly be other explanations for terrorism ? Religious ? Ethnic ? Nationalist ? Yet another way of seeking world domination ? All of the above ?

Certainly food for thought. Thanks, Toni :)