By Jill Fraser
MELBOURNE
An Australian official could become a high profile victim of the country's new anti-terror laws as he is suspected of being in an area where Kurdish fighters have been battling Daesh militants.
Matthew Gardiner, a former president of Northern Territory Labor who left Australia in January, was stopped by Customs officials at Darwin airport on Sunday morning after flying from the Middle East via Sweden and Singapore.
Quite what he was doing there remains to be proven.
An Australian federal police spokesperson confirmed to The Anadolu Agency that they had spoken to a Darwin man today - Sunday - following his return to Australia and that he was subsequently released without charge.
Enquiries relating to the activities of the 43-year-old - an ex-Australian army combat engineer - while overseas are ongoing.
The ABC reports that a spokesperson for Attorney-General George Brandis said it was inappropriate to comment on Gardiner's return as it was now a law enforcement matter.
Brandis has previously said it was illegal for Australian citizens to support any armed group in Syria, even though the Australian Defence Force and Kurdish rebels may share a common enemy.
"It is illegal to fight in Syria for either side of the conflict," the spokesperson said. "If you fight illegally in overseas conflicts, you face up to life in prison upon your return to Australia.”
The Australian Government does not recognize the Kurds as a legitimate armed force in Iraq, the spokesperson said.
The controversial new Foreign Fighters Bill, which was rushed through Parliament in October 2014, despite being opposed by 43 groups, including the National Imams Council and Lebanese Muslim Association, has bestowed new powers on national security agencies to detain and investigate terror suspects and returning fighters.
Gardiner, a former Northern Territory trade union boss and senior Labor Party figure, was stood down as Northern Territory Labor president when he allegedly left for the Middle East earlier this year.
He would have managed to travel to Syria because he was not on any Federal Police watch lists at the time.
Syria is a "declared area" - an area that is illegal for Australians to travel to without a legitimate purpose.
It is understood that he returned to Australia on Sunday to see his wife and two sons.
The ABC reports that Gardiner previously served as an Australian Army combat engineer in Somalia in the early 1990s. He spent over a decade in the military experience before becoming a senior Labor figure.
Gardiner is a high profile figure in the Northern Territory, having served as the United Voice union secretary, the NT president of the Australian Labor Party and treasurer of Unions Northern Territory.
Friends were shocked when they discovered the dedicated father and vocal unionist was under suspicion of joining the conflict.
A union colleague, Luke Whitington, said he was surprised to learn of Gardiner’s alleged actions, describing him as “level headed”
It has been reported that Gardiner befriended a woman called Kader Kadandir on Facebook.
Kadandir’s page carries photos of Kurdish fighters, and has links to the pages "Stand with Kurdistan," "Support the Kurds" and "Help free the Kurds."
The connection between Kadandir and Gardiner remains unclear.
A counter-terrorism expert from Melbourne University's School of International Relations, Dr. David Malet, told AA that Gardiner’s case raises questions about the Foreign Fighter legislations.
“Just months after the new laws went into effect, Matthew Gardiner has forced the government to address whether they are too broad,” said Malet, who has published a book about recruits to overseas insurgencies, called "Foreign Fighters: Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts."
“The basis for prosecuting Gardiner is that he was [allegedly] in a declared area, not that he was aiding a terrorist group.
“Prosecution for simply being in a geographic area named by the foreign minister is an extremely blunt tool and should probably require some legislative oversight.”
