Liberal senator breaks with party to urge ‘mercy for the children’ of IS-linked Australian women in Syria

Backbencher Andrew McLachlan describes the 23 children as ‘innocents’ victimised by their parents’ ‘tragic attraction to a horrible ideology’ Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A Liberal senator has called for “mercy” for the 23 Australian children detained in a Syrian camp, as he warned that leaving the group to languish in detention risked making the situation worse for them and the Australian community in the future. After the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, thi...

By Dan Jervis-Bardy Chief political correspondent