Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for her question. I point out that Australia has, under both the previous Labor government and the current government, taken the lead at the UN Security Council when it comes to humanitarian aid into Syria. In fact, building on the work of former foreign minister Bob Carr, in February 2014, when we were still on the Security Council, Australia co-authored a resolution—2139, passed in February 2014—that called for the cessation of deliberate attacks on civilians in Syria, called for an end to the sieges that trapped so many civilians, called for the end of the use of starvation as a weapon of war and called for the facilitation of access for humanitarian assistance across conflict lines and border areas. Australia was pleased to play a lead role in that regard. At that time we committed a further $10 million in humanitarian aid and $2 million to support the efforts to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. That brought to a total of $112 million—almost $113 million—our aid at that time. Then, in July 2014, we co-authored resolution 2165, which again was a unanimous resolution, about getting cross-border access into Syria for humanitarian aid. We increased our aid to $131 million at that point.

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