Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Do you accept that bombing Syria will not make Australians safer, will not make Syrians safer and will instead increase instability in a country facing the brutality of both ISIS and the Assad regime? Won't it lay the ground for terrorism to grow and for more people to flee and seek refuge? Instead of more bombs, isn't a better approach for Australia to have a one-off additional intake of 20,000 refugees from Syria?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I made clear earlier today, at the start of question time, we very much accept that the people of Syria are caught between the mass executions of the death cult and the chemical weapons of the Assad regime. This is a diabolically difficult situation, and that is why there must be not just a humanitarian response but a security response as well, not just an aid and migration response but a military response as well. This is why we are carefully considering whether to extend our air strikes into Syria.

I have to say to the member who asked the question that this death cult which is responsible on a daily, moment-by-moment basis for mass executions, for crucifixions, for beheadings, for sexual slavery, for barbarity almost unimaginable, for barbarity scarcely seen and certainly not boasted about for centuries, is every day dreaming up new ways to kill people, new and more horrific ways to deal with people, and then it is exposing them on the internet. At the same time, it is sending message after message to its sympathisers elsewhere in the world, including here in Australia, to launch attacks on innocent people.

So, should we choose to extend our air strikes into Syria, we will be doing this in the collective self-defence of Iraq. We would be doing this out of a responsibility to protect innocent people at risk of horrible death from the most violent people imaginable. We would be doing this in defence of our own country because this government, all governments, this parliament and all parliaments have a responsibility to keep our country safe. When people threaten our country, when people inspire others to attack our country, this government will react with decency and with force. We will not hesitate to do what is necessary to keep our country safe. We will not hesitate to join our partners and allies in doing what is necessary to build a safer world. We will do the right thing by this country and we will do the right thing by the wider world.