A mother wipes her eyes, fixes her stare down the camera lens and starts to speak.
"You look at my face, you kids," she says, voice cracking.
"You don't want your mum looking like me."
Her name is Michele Harding. Her son Reece died late last month after stepping on a landmine while fighting with the Kurdish YPG.
The 23-year-old had gone to Syria in May to battle Islamic State militants.
His grieving mother says she's proud her son stood up in the name of a "fair go" against the fundamentalist sect.
But she had just one message for any other young people thinking about also taking up arms: "Use words, not guns".
After news of Reece's death, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there was a moral difference between fighting for IS and battling against the extremist group.
Nevertheless, he said Australians must not head to Syria or Iraq and involve themselves in the conflict.
But in her harrowing address to the media outside the family home, Ms Harding said her son wasn't a criminal.
And laws that made him out as such would only lead to more young men dying abroad, she said.
"If you can't stop them going, don't stop them coming back," she said.
She said the family had received no support from Australian authorities since Reece's death.
Indeed, they'd been questioned by the federal police and "horrified" to be given a leaflet on retrieving bodies from overseas, Reece's father Keith said.
To truly combat IS, Ms Harding said all Australians must educate themselves about the caliphate and call on governments to act on their behalf.
She said Australians should also understand that IS militants are not true Muslims - rather, a "radical, fanatical group".
A group that she urged Australian youths to tackle with political, not military, force.
"Don't let your mums feel like I'm feeling now," she said.
"You make your voice heard here."
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