Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also thank the member for Fremantle for bringing this important motion before the parliament for debate today. She is right. Four years ago the Syrian conflict started and it has developed into the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history. Just to reiterate the horrifying facts about the Syrian crisis: over 200,000 people, in the last four years, have lost their lives; and almost four million people have fled to neighbouring countries. The fact is that in Syria, with a population of over 12 million, more than half of the population is displaced—four million internationally or into neighbouring countries, and the remaining two million displaced internally.

Think about the enormous damage that is now being done to the infrastructure, the way of life and the future of those people. Late last year, the Chief Government Whip, who will speak next, and I had the opportunity to conduct a field visit where we visited Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon to assess the impact of the Syrian crisis. We spoke to many of the refugees. We spent time in various camps. We spent time with the UN. We spent time with the educators. We spent time with those catering to the humanitarian needs of the Syrian refugees.

You could not possibly come away from a visit like that unaffected and simply come back to Australia and take the view that it is somebody else's problem. It cannot be somebody else's problem when this had its origins in the coalition of the willing back in 2003 and, unfortunately, disturbed relationships within Iraq. As a consequence of that, a domino effect has occurred throughout the Middle East and we have not got to the stage where we can say that there is a political solution in sight. What we have been doing, as part of the world community, is fighting to ensure that the humanitarian needs of countries such as Iraq and Syria are being protected, but the truth on the ground is that we are losing that battle.

I think about the amount of devastation that we saw—parents of children, some of the kids coming across the border with deformities and needing access to doctors. Philip and I got to see the lucky kids, the ones going to school—the kids were the ones that attended schools in tents. The vast majority of the kids did not go to school; they will not go to school. The vast majority of the kids coming out of this conflict will be cannon fodder for tomorrow's jihadis unless we take a stand on this.

We cannot sit back and say this is somebody else's problem, because, as I said, we were one of those countries that, despite the urging of the international community, the urging of the United Nations and the urging of the European nations, decided to participate and be a part of the coalition of the willing in 2003. That is history and that is a fact. But, as a consequence, we have skin in the game. We have a higher level of responsibility than other countries who were not part of the coalition of the willing. We need to step up and honour our responsibilities to that part of the region.

On that issue, Oxfam have indicated that our fair share of the financial contribution to Syria at the moment would be $117.6 million. We are nowhere near that. As a matter of fact, in the last budget we cut back our financial contribution to international aid. As for our refugee intake, whilst it is true that the number of places dedicated to refugees out of Syria and Iraq is now 4,400, that is on the existing humanitarian intake of 13,750. When Labor were in government, we increased that intake to 20,000. We think there is an overwhelming need for this government to understand its responsibilities and step up, to increase the level of refugee intake and to also honour our commitment to financially assist the humanitarian effort in the Middle East.

See this speech in context