August 12, 2026 — 11:25amThe Coalition will work with One Nation on a legally questionable attempt to ban Australian citizens linked to overseas terrorist groups from returning, as Labor sledges the parties’ co-operation on a bill they say is constitutionally unviable.The partnership comes after a failed attempt from the Coalition to legislate similar handbrakes on returning citizens earlier this year, with opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson arguing a Senate inquiry into the matter was necessary to determine the legality of such moves.One Nation leader Pauline Hanson speaking to reporters at Parliament House, Canberra, on Wednesday.Alex Ellinghausen“We’ve said consistently we’re happy to work with anyone who wants to protect Australia from the serious national security threat posed by these returning radicalised people, and we consistently said we’d support the introduction of bills and the referral of bills to committees,” Paterson said on Wednesday.“We’re not willing to just take [Home Affairs Minister] Tony Burke’s word for it.”One Nation’s Protecting Australians from Foreign Terrorist Fighters Bill – its first complete policy proposal this term – will be introduced to the Senate on Wednesday after facing criticism from Labor and constitutional experts over its ability to survive a High Court challenge.Hanson argues the bill will strengthen powers to cancel or refuse passports and toughen bail laws for terrorism charges. A key pillar of the bill would create a new “foreign terrorist fighter exclusion order” that the minister could ask the Federal Court to impose. The existing exclusion order regime under the minister’s control would remain.Burke recently said the bill “would last about 30 seconds in the High Court”, while constitutional law expert Anne Twomey told this masthead the proposal appeared to be a delaying mechanism and would achieve little in its attempt to ban foreign fighters from returning.Burke’s assistant minister, Julian Hill, has argued senior members of the Coalition who have served in former governments are well aware of the constitutional limits.This masthead revealed on Wednesday that former prime minister John Howard has warned against an alliance between the Coalition and One Nation and called on disaffected conservative voters to back an alternate government “working hard on policy alternatives”.Last month, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor warned One Nation would bankrupt Australia after criticism he was too timid in tackling Hanson head-on.One Nation leader Pauline Hanson addressing the media on Wednesday before tabling her bill in the Senate. Alex EllinghausenPaterson on Wednesday dismissed a question over whether the move would legitimise One Nation, arguing he was “much more concerned about the national interest here and our national security” than the politics of such an action.Both a parliamentary inquiry and passage of One Nation’s bill would require a majority vote in the Senate, which would require the Greens or Labor MPs to support the push, both highly unlikely scenarios. Even then, the bill would ultimately fail to pass parliament given Labor has a significant majority in the House of Representatives.In February, a month before a group of Islamic State-linked families arrived in Australia, the Coalition unveiled a bill that would make it illegal to help individuals linked to terror hotspots or organisations, or who have committed terror-related offences, return.Taylor said at the time that Labor should support the measure, arguing: “We must shut the door to people who do not share our values, and these people rejected our values in favour of terror.” Labor voted against the bill and it failed to pass.A further cohort of 13 men imprisoned in Iraq have expressed their desire to return to Australia. The Albanese government has vowed to hit the group – including Perth-born paediatrician and notorious IS fighter Tareq Kamleh, nicknamed “Dr Jihad” – with the “full force of the law”.Labor frontbencher Murray Watt stressed last month that the government faced constitutional limitations on preventing Australian citizens from returning to the country as he decried anyone who has made the “absolutely awful decision to join a foreign terrorist organisation”.Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.From our partners