Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is good to have this opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance because this is a great day for our country. This is a magnificent moment where the generosity of spirit and the determination of Australia to be a helpful country to those most in need is on display. We should be proud. There is no doubt about it. I have not received any emails or any points of contact from anybody debating that we should not take 12,000 refugees. That is again a testament to our nation and to the spirit of Australians.

Whilst we should be proud, we should never forget that right now around the world and particularly around the Syria-Iraq war, people are suffering. People are dying. People are in the most desperate circumstances. I am not talking about the movement across Europe for whatever motivation that is but I am talking about right now in these conflict zones, in these war zones people are having the hardest of existences. It is costing lives.

Bringing 12,000 people as soon as possible out for permanent resettlement in Australia is the thing that we should absolutely do and it is a great thing for this country to do. I do compare that to other countries around the world. Everyone should look to the detail. For us, it will be 12,000 people for permanent resettlement. There are other countries around the world where, in the detail, it is not quite so good a deal. The numbers might be good, but is it a permanent deal? Is it processing or is it resettlement? Australia has a very good record in this space and a world-leading record for this moment and for this war.

There is no point in us trying to be political in this place and I certainly will not try to be political in any way. I do not want to demean this great moment for our country. But I do want to go to an important issue. This is something that I have been quoted in the papers as having said: that the ultimate problem does need to be fixed. I have said that there is no point putting endless buckets under a leaking roof; you just have to fix the roof. So I disagree with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who says that you can bring groups like IS to the table for negotiation.

My view is that anyone who is into slavery, beheading, torture, rape and paedophilia is subhuman, and these are not the sort of people who can be negotiated with or rehabilitated. I can see only one way to deal with groups like IS, or Daesh. They must be destroyed. They must be defeated. Eventually, the world will come to the realisation that that is the only way and that action must be taken.

Until the defeat and the destruction of IS takes place, we are going to continue to see more refugees until there is no-one left in Syria or Iraq. If IS gets to that point where they have driven all minorities, or anyone who disagrees with them, out of those countries, it is not just going to stop around the borders of Syria and Iraq; it is going to keep going and they will expand and expand. In the end, the reality is that they must be defeated and they must be destroyed, otherwise there will be nothing but an endless reign of refugees, human suffering, brutality and evil. We do not want to see that around the world. Nobody wants that. I am afraid that in the end, it is going to come down to a fight and we should probably be ready for that and be willing to do what needs to be done. It is sad but true.

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