"Our goal as far as those who serve with Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS] in the Middle East is to kill them. Let me be quite frank — that is our goal," Turnbull told reporters.
The Australian government continues to update its legal framework with regard to armed forces to help facilitate their efforts, the prime minister noted.
"My government changed the law so that our Australian Defence Force, our Air Force, is able to kill terrorists in the Middle East whether they have a gun in their hand, a bomb in their hand or whether they are in the back office planning an attack or raising money or engaged in logistics," the prime minister added.
In September 2014, Australia raised the terror threat level to 'probable' under its five-tier system. This change was made over concerns of the possible return of Australians who have joined military conflicts in Syria and Iraq to their homeland.