Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has always had a very proud record in terms of offshore humanitarian programs. We are one of the most generous countries in the world. Between 1993 and 2012 we had the third largest number of recipients: 211,240. The Howard government had strong offshore and resettlement policies. I was very proud to work on some of those resettlement policies, particularly the work on refugee resettlement and the offshore component. I want to add to the voices of my colleagues in thanking the minister for the fine work he has been doing to ensure that the boats have been stopped for a period of more than six months. We no longer see devastating cases where lives were lost at sea that would tug at the heartstrings of all of us.

There are thousands of people around the world who are displaced every day through war and human rights violations. When one looks at how many are displaced around the world one sees that at any given time there are 45.2 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. At the end of 2012 there were 28.8 million internally displaced people, 15.4 million refugees and 937,000 asylum seekers. Australia has an obligation to make sure that we have a viable offshore program that accepts the people that are most at risk, that in many cases have been languishing in camps for many years. I have visited many camps, as I am sure the immigration minister has and as many of the people sitting on this side of the chamber have. I have seen many of the camps, particularly on the Burma-Thailand border, that have up to 100,000 people in them for many years. Our offshore program clearly should be catering for people who most desperately need to come to Australia and have been in these camps for a long time.

The world is unfortunately getting to be a more turbulent place. In recent years we have seen the situation in Syria from where many people have been displaced into Jordan and Lebanon. Just recently I had a meeting with the Jordanian ambassador, and I want to congratulate the work that countries like Jordan are doing, particularly in looking after the huge number of internally displaced people who have come across the border from Syria. These problems will not go away.

I want to also thank the minister for the fantastic work that he has done in increasing the Women at Risk intake. This particular program was very much needed because, unfortunately and sadly, being a woman in many of these offshore and refugee camps puts women at the highest risk. Many of the times that they are displaced they may have lost their husbands killed or they may have been separated from them and unfortunately their livelihood is greatly threatened and also their ability to be protected. It puts them at risk of rape and terrible atrocities.

Minister, I have a question to you in terms of the humanitarian component of our program. I would like to know what has been the humanitarian dividend delivered in the budget as a result of the coalition's policies to stop illegal boat arrivals under our Operation Sovereign Borders?

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