Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

  (a)    the Syrian conflict which began in March 2011 has:

        (i) developed into one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our time; and

        (ii) caused widespread damage to infrastructure across Syria, with basic necessities such as food, water and medical care difficult or impossible to access;

  (b)   serious human rights violations remain a common occurrence in Syria;

  (c)   it is estimated that more than 190,000 people have lost their lives in the Syrian conflict so far;

  (d)   in the three and a half years since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, more than 3.5 million refugees have fled their homes and crossed into neighbouring countries, while the United Nations estimates a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria itself, representing an increase of 2 million in just six months;

  (e)   hosting the Syrian refugees has put enormous pressure on the infrastructure, services, utilities and local populations of the host countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, with Syrian refugees in Lebanon now constituting approximately one-third of the population, and unemployment among poor Lebanese rising significantly;

  (f)   the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has encouraged the international community to share the burden of supporting Syrian refugees, having a target for resettlement of 130,000 by the end of 2016, but has received a minimal response to date with less than 2 per cent of the registered refugee population having secured a resettlement place;

  (g)   while the regional response to the crisis should be commended, the global response has been relatively weak;

  (h)   the United Nations issued its largest appeal in relation to a single crisis in December 2013, stating that $6.5 billion was vital to adequately support Syrians inside and outside of the conflict-ravaged nation, but to date the appeal has only raised 62 per cent of that target; and

  (i)   in December 2014 the United Nations World Food Programme announced that it was suspending its food aid program for Syrian refugees for lack of funding, leaving 1.7 million refugees to go hungry during winter, and has called for US$64 million in immediate assistance to allow the recommencement of this essential aid; and

(2)   calls on the Australian Government to:

  (a)   reconsider the level of Australia’s existing humanitarian support and funding to assist those affected by the Syrian crisis with a view to making a significantly larger contribution;

  (b)   offer direct support to neighbouring countries, including through funding and arrangements to receive additional refugees in Australia by expanding the existing quota of asylum seekers and focusing resettlement on those Syrian refugees recommended by the UNHCR on the basis of vulnerability; and

  (c)   take an active role in all relevant multilateral fora in calling for a more substantial and better coordinated global response, including a ‘fair share’ approach to the resettlement of refugees.

It was just over a year ago that I participated in a UNICEF parliamentary delegation, together with the shadow minister for foreign affairs, Tanya Plibersek, and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, to observe the plight of the Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon and the challenges faced by the host countries.

We saw firsthand the horror still on the faces of the refugees at what they had experienced, the fear for others left behind, the loss of their homes and everything they owned, the loss of pride and dignity that comes with poverty and dependence on assistance, and the anxiety about their future, especially for the children. We also saw the enormous pressures placed on local Jordanian and Lebanese communities by hosting so many refugees—pressures on the economy, on health and education services and utilities, on housing and employment and on the social and political fabric of their societies. Despite their concerns about the sustainability of the situation, these countries continue to accept refugees in true humanitarian spirit.

Since March 2011, the humanitarian crisis in Syria, horrific from the outset, has consistently deteriorated and there is no end in sight. More than 200,000 people have been killed, including 10,000 children. The life expectancy of Syrians has dropped by 13 years since the crisis began and the Syrian economy has shrunk by as much as 40 per cent. The humanitarian situation is being exacerbated by the destruction of infrastructure and the lack of access to basic necessities. Hospitals have been destroyed by airstrikes and schools have been levelled or else militarised by combatants. Civilians are sometimes bombed while they wait in line for bread, and attacks have sought the deliberate interruption of water and food supplies. Malnutrition, starvation, and death have followed.

The Syrian conflict is characterised by the widespread violation of international human rights. Enforced disappearances, unlawful detention and the torture and murder of men, women, children and the elderly are common occurrences. Children are being recruited into combat and support roles by groups like the Free Syrian Army. Sexual violence is widespread. For all that the world is focused on the brutal actions of IS, so dramatically documented and publicised on the internet, the fact remains that the Syrian regime of Al Assad has been far more deadly for civilians in Syria than IS. The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented at least 1,232 civilian deaths in December 2014, with 1,049 killed by regime forces, or more than 85 per cent. IS is responsible, by this count, for just over five percent of the civilian deaths. Of course, due to the limited media access to Syria, it is difficult to verify casualty numbers, but the available figures are based on reports by grassroots organisations and independent human rights advocates, field hospital workers and journalists.

As UN Security Council Resolution 2191 noted:

… 7.6 million [Syrians] are internally displaced, 4.5 million are living in hard-to-reach areas and 212,000 are trapped in besieged areas.

Neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, as well as Iraq and Egypt, now host over 3.5 million refugees. Lebanon, a country of 4½ million people, is hosting more than a million refugees spread over 1,700 locations. These desperate people are forced to exist in circumstances that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has described as 'double jeopardy'; displaced by conflict, they now exist in dangerous poverty.

In Geneva last December, the international community agreed to take in 100,000 Syrian refugees, contributing to the UNHCR's overall goal of resettling '10 per cent of the Syrian refugee population'. The World Food Programme has been able to resume its work in Syria after stopping in December for want of funding. While these are positive developments, the international response has not been strong enough. By December only 62 per cent of the $6.5 billion originally requested by UNHCR had been received and UNHCR currently estimates that $8.4 billion will ultimately be required. Australia needs to be part of this effort at a level commensurate with both our capacity and our national character. So far we have contributed $130 million in aid, and I was glad when the government announced in August last year that it would reserve 2,200 refugee places for Syrian refugees and 2,200 places for affected Iraqis. But when one considers the contribution being made by other countries, especially the neighbouring countries hosting millions of refugees, it is plain that Australia could do more.

At a time when serious national and global incidents occur weekly, it is crucial that we guard against a tendency to think that what is happening in Syria is just one of a number of big issues—when of course it is the largest humanitarian disaster that has occurred in decades by some considerable margin. We must guard against a sense that what happened last week or last year is old news, because the Syrian crisis continues today as terribly and harmfully as ever. In this case the right course of action is simple: Australia should provide more humanitarian assistance to the people affected by the conflict in Syria and to neighbouring host countries and we should receive more Syrian refugees.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion.

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

I am pleased to speak on the motion on the Syrian conflict, and I thank the member for Fremantle for putting it on the Notice Paper today. The Australian government is gravely concerned by the ongoing conflict in Syria. There is no disagreement that the Syrian conflict has created one of the worst humanitarian crises currently facing the world. But, in determining how to response to such a crisis as this, it is important that we deal with the facts, that we do not act in ignorance and that we determine how to act based on the best available information.

Tragically, as a result of this conflict, more than 200,000 people have already died, 3.8 million have fled to neighbouring countries and 7.6 million are internally displaced. The conflict threatens the security of neighbouring countries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

While the Indo-Pacific region is the focus of Australia's aid program, Australia has responded generously to the humanitarian crises across the Middle East. Australia provided almost $70 million in response to the humanitarian crises across the Middle East in 2014. Australia has contributed $135.8 million in humanitarian assistance in response to the Syrian crisis since the conflict began, and this includes $35 million in 2014. This makes Australia the 14th largest donor to the UN's Syria appeals since 2011. Australia provides food, water, shelter, protection, medical assistance and education inside Syria. Australia is also supporting the refugees in neighbouring countries, particularly in Lebanon and in Jordan, while helping refugees and their host communities.

Australian funding is provided through UN agencies and NGOs. Australia contributed almost $2 million to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to support the OPCW-UN Joint Mission overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons program. The government has announced that 2,200 Syrian refugees will be resettled in Australia in 2014-15. In addition to the 2,200 Iraqi refugees over the next three years, Australia will also settle at least 4,500 Syrians. This is in addition to the more than 1,000 Syrians who were resettled in the previous financial year, 2013-14.

In addition to our financial contribution and refugee intake, Australia has played a leading role in international efforts to improve humanitarian access into Syria. During our term on the UN Security Council, Australia worked with Jordan and Luxembourg to co-author three UNSC resolutions seeking to improve humanitarian access to Syria. They were resolutions 2139, 2165 and 2191. These were enormously significant, particularly in terms of our success in mobilising the support of the international community.

These resolutions demand that all parties to the conflict take essential steps to protect Syrian civilians and to allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access through Syria, across borders and conflict lines, to those in need. Resolution 2165 authorised UN agencies and their implementing partners to provide assistance through specified border crossings through neighbouring countries. More than half a million desperate people inside Syria have received aid through these border crossings.

Nevertheless, the parties to the conflict, particularly the Assad regime and Daesh, known as ISIL, continue to inflict appalling violence against civilians and have been guilty of widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law. The Syrian conflict urgently needs a political solution that can bring an end to the violence.

Australia strongly supports the efforts of the United Nations Security General, and his Special Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, to encourage a political process. The solution must be one in which all serious communities have a voice in the country's future and that has no room, whatsoever, for extremist groups like Daesh or those who are affiliated with al-Qaeda.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fremantle and my colleague the member for Werriwa for proposing and seconding this motion respectively. We can debate elements of it. I think, in part, it probably understates the enormity and magnitude of the problem, but I will take up part (2) of the motion, which I think fails to acknowledge adequately what the government is seeking to do.

I will just spend a moment on Syria. I have visited Syria many times. It is the cradle of Arab civilisation, enormously historic and culturally very significant. When you go to cities like Aleppo and Homs, when you see some of the areas which even the Crusaders tramped through, like the Krak des Chevaliers, you cannot help but be influenced by it being the cradle of Arab civilisation which has brought together Sunni, Shiah, Alawi, Druze and Christians—people do not realise the patriarchs of so many Christian churches have their headquarters in Damascus. This is a country that ought to be an example to the rest of the world, demonstrating that people of different faiths, different religions, can come together and live together in the way in which we do in Australia.

It is an absolute tragedy that we are seeing so many people displaced by this conflict. I think the numbers of those who are externally displaced are higher than recorded in this motion. We saw and heard about the situation in Turkey; in Jordan, which I have been to previously; and in Lebanon. These countries are now facing extraordinary pressures. Lebanon and Jordan are at the point of closing their borders. Turkey is becoming less willing to accept those who are displaced. There needs to be a realisation around the world about the crisis that has occurred in this region. I am enormously troubled by the potential for insecurity in Lebanon, a country which I have visited so many times and where many friends of mine still have relatives. I lament what is happening in Jordan and Turkey. I think it is important that we acknowledge the enormity of the problem and that we work to resolve it.

To pick up on one comment by my colleague the member for Werriwa, the Labor Party certainly did argue for a larger aid program, but I might say they did so in the context of a large number of unlawful arrivals being accommodated in the refugee program because they had landed here in Australia and they were counted as part of the program. So the 20,000 figure was largely fictitious in terms of what it was likely to be—in comparison to where we are now, where the temporary protection visa regime will mean that they are not taking permanent places.

We do have a significant commitment to assisting in the resettlement of people have been displaced in Syria. We are continuing to play a meaningful role in funding UN agencies and NGOs, in recognition of the considerable demand that there is for resources to be able to deal with their needs. As mentioned by the member for Werriwa, we had the opportunity of seeing refugees in circumstances that are quite horrific. It is important to understand that they are not free to travel; they do not have money to pay people smugglers. They have priority, in my view, in our consideration when we are looking at who ought to be assisted.

I am sure Australia will continue to play a positive role in contributing financially, providing refugee places and working through the international organisations to try and get a resolution to what is, I believe, the most significant problem facing the world community right now.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to support this motion and I congratulate and thank the member for Fremantle on highlighting, in the Australian parliament, this very important issue. The situation in Syria is nothing short of a humanitarian disaster. The conflict which began in March 2011 has devastated the country and inflicted considerable pressure on the surrounding region.

In four years, this bloody conflict has resulted in the deaths of 190,000 people, many of them in shockingly brutal circumstances, and the displacement of another 6.5 million refugees internally and 3½ million people externally. The situation at the moment is dire. In September 2014, United Nations human rights investigators released evidence of atrocities which continue to be committed in Syria by both Islamic extremists and—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with the resolution agreed to earlier today, the debate is interrupted. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour this day.