By Jacob Shteyman in Canberra

The prime minister has warned Australians to avoid repeating the stupidity of the Bali Nine as five of the drug traffickers return home to spend Christmas with their families for the first time in decades.

Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen and Michael Czugaj – all now aged in their late 30s or 40s – spent almost 20 years locked in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison after being found guilty of attempting to traffic heroin.

After spending four days in the Howard Springs federal accommodation facility near Darwin, the men returned to their respective homes on Thursday to continue reintegrating with Australian society.

Anthony Albanese said it was time for the men to return home, citing Paul Kelly’s classic song How to Make Gravy in which an inmate laments spending Christmas away from his family.

“(The Bali Nine members) committed a serious crime. They paid a serious price for that crime,” the prime minister told reporters on Friday.

“They sing the great Paul Kelly song in jail over Christmas … well, their families had their loved ones in jail for 20 Christmases and that was enough.”

Mr Albanese reiterated the Australian government respected Indonesian laws and warned his nation’s citizens to do the same.

“It is a reminder for people out there travelling, that Australians are subject to the laws of countries they are in,” he said.

“Don’t be stupid … don’t take a risk like that.”

The men’s release draws an end to the saga which up-ended their lives and tested Australia’s diplomatic relations with its northern neighbour.

Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws and sparked a diplomatic incident when Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015.

Renae Lawrence was released in 2018, the same year Tan Duc Than Nguyen died of cancer.

Previous attempts to free the remaining Bali Nine members failed to gain traction, but the accession to power of President Prabowo Subianto in October renewed hope for their release.

The two governments finally struck a deal in December, which Indonesian senior minister for legal affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra said was “reciprocal in nature”.

Australian ministers have denied a quid pro quo agreement that would force the federal government to consider freeing Indonesian prisoners in the future.

The five men, who have not been pardoned, are banned from entering Indonesia for life.