Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has issued a scathing criticism of former Liberal MP Wyatt Roy's trip to Iraq, branding it "irresponsible", "very high risk" and suggesting he could have been captured by hostile forces while there.
On Thursday, Mr Roy - who lost his seat of Longman in the federal election - revealed to SBS that he travelled last week to a region west of Mosul in northern Iraq, a stronghold of Islamic State.
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Wyatt Roy caught in IS firefight
Former Liberal MP Wyatt Roy claims he was caught up in an IS attack near the Iraq-Syria border last week. Vision courtesy SBS News.
He said he witnessed a firefight between IS militants and Kurdish fighters before he was told to jump into his car and speed in the opposite direction.
"The danger of a 50-cal bullet, or if they had bigger RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades], or a mortar round hitting us was pretty serious," Mr Roy told SBS.
He said he went to the volatile region "to visit and see for myself, in a way that I really couldn't have done as a member of parliament".
Ms Bishop, his former parliamentary colleague, was not impressed.
"Official government advice for Australians is "do not travel" to Iraq," she said in a statement on Thursday night.
"It is irresponsible of Wyatt Roy to travel to the front line of the conflict between ISIL and Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq, a region regarded as very high risk.
"He has placed himself at risk of physical harm and capture, and acted in defiance of government advice.
"Mr Roy did not seek nor did he receive assistance from the Australian Government for his travel to Iraq.
"The government does not endorse or approve of Mr Roy's actions, and strongly urges other Australians to follow the official advice of do not travel to Iraq."
#Exclusive: Footage provided by Wyatt Roy of a deadly confrontation between Islamic State and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq pic.twitter.com/szfLmrlZKI
— SBS News (@SBSNews) September 29, 2016
Penny Wong, the shadow minister for foreign affairs, said Mr Roy should have known better than to act out a "boyhood fantasy" in a warzone.
"This is a very unwise, and dangerous act for a former LNP Member of Parliament, who should be expected to know better," Ms Wong said.
"Warzones are not places for people to act out their boyhood fantasies.
"As Mr Roy's former Queensland LNP colleague Peter Dutton put it, the fight against IS should be left to Australia's military, not "cowboys" who put themselves in harm's way and might lead to other Australians being forced to risk their lives to rescue them."
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