Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has accused the opposition of rank hypocrisy over the repatriation of Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps.
Four women and 13 children arrived in Sydney last weekend after the government supported their repatriation.
Some of the women are the wives, widows and sisters of Islamic State group (IS) fighters, who say they were tricked or coerced into travelling to the Middle East.
The women and children are settling in Western Sydney with some community leaders raising concerns about potential security risks.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews has criticised the rescue mission and raised concerns about potential risks to the Australian public.
"I think the politicking that is going on from the opposition leader is disgraceful," Ms O'Neil told the ABC on Friday.
"It is rank hypocrisy because the Liberals did exactly the same thing in 2019, repatriated a group of people from these camps.
"For some reason they are now saying this is not appropriate to do. People are sick of this kind of politics."
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was in Western Sydney this week, where he said community leaders raised their concerns with him.
Speaking on Friday, he said repatriations posed a security threat.
"The job of the government is to make sure that Australians are safe and not introduce into the system an element of risk. They've done exactly that," Mr Dutton told Channel Nine.
"I was out in Western Sydney yesterday in Fairfield and I can tell you the communities out there who have lost loved ones to ISIS fighters in the Middle East are beside themselves with worry about what is going to happen in their local community, local schools, when you bring this ideology back into the local community."
Labor frontbencher Jason Clare, who represents the Western Sydney electorate of Blaxland, echoed Ms O'Neil's comments.
Appearing on Sunrise with deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley, he said the then-Coalition government didn't tell him people were being repatriated to his electorate.
"You brought home women who were married to ISIS fighters and you brought home their children as well. I wasn't told," he said.
"I didn't criticise it then as I trust our law enforcement agencies. What I am saying is you are a hypocrite for doing it then and attacking it now."
In a statement issued after the TV segment, Ms Ley said the former government only repatriated eight children in 2019.
Independent MP Dai Le has said the repatriations were hurtful to Christian refugees in her south-western Sydney electorate.
She said members of her Assyrian community had been targeted by IS militants.
But Ms O'Neil insisted the government was listening to security advice and the risk of leaving them in Syria was greater.
"One of the things that hasn't been properly discussed here is the risk to Australia if we do nothing," she said.
"The truth is we have got a relatively large group of Australian children who would otherwise be growing up in a camp where a key focus and influence on their life is violent ideology and I don't think that is good for the country."
The federal government has been accused of repatriating the families to NSW instead of Victoria, where a state Labor government is seeking re-election.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed that on Friday.
"People have gone to where they are from, that is what has occurred," he said.
"That has been something that has been worked through with the states and worked through on the basis of national security advice."
