Foreign Minister Penny Wong has refused to answer questions about bringing Australian women linked to terrorist group Islamic State back into the country.

Accusations of a ‘cover up’ around the issue have been levelled since the fiery Senate estimates showdown in which Wong and senior officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) stonewalled attempts to get answers.

They would not disclose how many ‘ISIS brides’ are back on Australian soil and when or if the public would be told. The grilling followed reports six women and their children had been removed from Syrian detention camps and had already slipped back into the country. 

The group reportedly fled Syria and travelled to Beirut where they were detained for not having valid visas. They were issued Australian passports after DNA and security checks.

Liberal Senator James Paterson asked Wong when Anthony Albanese was briefed about the group before he dismissed – in Parliament on September 3 – reports they had been repatriated.  

‘Presumably, if the Prime Minister was able to say in Question Time that those reports were not accurate, that sometime prior to the 3rd of September, he was briefed on the possible return of ISIS brides to Australia,’ he said.

Wong refused to answer.

‘Everything after ”’presumably” is your hypothetical, so I’m not responding to it,’ she said.

Paterson then asked the officials. 

‘How was the Prime Minister able to say in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the 3rd of September, that those reports were not accurate if he had not been briefed on the matter?’ he asked.

‘That’s a very good question,’ Wong said, after a long pause, saying it was a ‘clever way of asking the same question’.

Wong was also asked what was incorrect about the reports, something she also refused to answer.  

Albanese insists his government played no role in the reported return of the group.

‘Australia did not provide assistance,’ he said on Monday, adding that as citizens, the women ‘have the right to enter Australia.’

The Opposition, however, argued that passport processing and security checks clearly proved government involvement.

‘The parliament has given the government the power to temporarily exclude someone from Australia if they’ve had an association with a terrorist organisation, and it does not appear the government used those powers,’ Paterson said. 

In one particularly awkward exchange, when asked if giving passports to the women amounted to assistance, Wong went silent. 

‘That is acting in accordance with [the Government’s] obligations’ she said. 

 PM&C officials also declined to confirm whether the women are in Australia, citing ‘privacy reasons.’

Wong further refused to say if the women had undergone de-radicalisation checks, and accused the Opposition of ‘asking the same question multiple times for political effect.’

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michaelia Cash then slammed Wong’s evasiveness.

‘The Albanese Government refuses to answer the most basic questions about the ISIS brides that were brought back to Australia,’ Senator Cash said.

‘These women chose to join one of the world’s most barbaric terrorist groups, and now they’re living in our communities.’

‘This has turned into another Albanese Government cover-up,’ Cash said.

‘There was nothing asked today that would infringe on the privacy of any individual. This is an extremely weak excuse for what amounts to a shoddy cover-up.’ 

The Opposition has vowed to keep up the pressure, and signalled they will make the issue a key focus as Senate estimates hearings continue. 

The issue is expected to dominate a Home Affairs hearing, happening on Friday.