Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has brushed off the Coalition's plan to punish anyone helping the 34 Australians in Syria with alleged ties to the Islamic State to return home, as calls grow to show the children compassion.

The Coalition today unveiled a new proposal to criminalise helping anyone linked to terrorist organisations after the cohort of 11 women and 23 children tried to return to Australia earlier this month but were turned back due to unspecified procedural problems.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said his proposed law would target "terrorist sympathisers" and "shut the door" on those bringing hate and violence to Australia.

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"Labor needs to be up-front with the Australian people about what is going on here, but most of all, Labor needs to support this legislation, which will help to protect Australians and protect our way of life," he said.

Taylor, when pressed about the criteria for a potential prosecution, said it would revolve around someone who visited a "designated hot spot" for terrorism or supported a terrorist group, such as the Islamic State.

"It is already illegal for someone to visit a terrorist hotspot or to support a terrorist organisation," he said.

The proposed law would allow for some exemptions.

The opposition will introduce the legislation when parliament returns on March 10.

Laws introduced by the Morrison government in 2019 allow temporary exclusion orders to be applied to anyone deemed a national security threat from returning to Australia from overseas.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has used one such order to ban one of the women from returning, but admitted to the ABC yesterday that ASIO did not believe the other 33 met the criteria to be temporarily banned.

He added that they all hold Australian passports, as none of them could legally be denied from obtaining the documents.

The federal government has insisted it is not helping to repatriate the group. 

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When asked about the proposal from the opposition, Albanese said the Coalition "don't have serious plans" to deal with the situation.

"We, of course, have [legal] advice, but it's the same advice that the Coalition got, which is why the laws that are in place are the laws put there by the Coalition," he said.

"They pretend that the Constitution doesn't exist. They know that there are some limits on what can be done."

NSW Premier Chris Minns today revealed he has been working with the federal government about the group's potential arrival since late last year. 

He said up to a third of the cohort would settle in NSW and he would have sympathy for the children if they were to return to Australia.

"If they were to return to NSW, then I think we need to be transparent, the NSW government would educate them, and we would make sure that they were safe," he said.

"I worry about where these children will be in the years ahead, and I worry about what the consequences of doing nothing for them if they did return to Australia would be."

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Greens' home affairs spokesperson Senator David Shoebridge said the 23 children in the Syrian camps are victims of ISIS.

"They had no choice in going to Syria to have their childhoods devastated like this," he said.

"It is shocking that both Angus Taylor and Anthony Albanese are failing a moral test that was set by Scott Morrison, who said when he assisted children to return in 2020 that 'these young children who are coming back to Australia, they can't be held responsible for the crimes of their parents'."

Shoebridge added that the group will return to Australia, and that it was a matter of how.

"Will it be in an orderly and monitored way where Australian agencies can integrate people back into the community and monitor community safety, or will it be an unplanned and risky mess?" he asked. 

Save the Children Australia, an organisation that has called for the children's repatriation and provided them with humanitarian aid, said any attempt to criminalise advocacy would be "extraordinary".

"No Australian child should be left stranded in dangerous desert camps for seven long years, and both sides of government have previously recognised this by repatriating groups of Australian children and women in the past," chief executive Mat Tinkler said.

"We call on political parties to dial down the political rhetoric. It is time to show leadership and compassion for Australian children."

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Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions.

Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.

The group of 34 Australians are expected to make a second attempt to fly back to Australia. 

They are part of the women and children affiliated with former IS fighters who have been detained in camps since the terrorist group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019.

Though defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in both Syria and Iraq.

– Reported with Associated Press

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