Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Many Australians, including Liberal and Labor premiers and thousands who attended candlelight vigils last night, have called upon the government to do more to help those suffering because of the terrible crisis in Syria. Will the Prime Minister act on these calls and join with Labor to offer an additional 10,000 places for refugees displaced by the Syrian crisis, on top of Australia's existing humanitarian intake?

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

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As I indicated to the House yesterday, Australia will do more. We have already done a lot. In the 2012-13 year, when the Syrian civil war was well and truly underway, we took under 100 people. In the 2013-14 year, as the civil war became worse, we took 1,000 people from Syria. In the last financial year we took 2,200 people from Syria, and we will do more. We will do more in the weeks and months and years to come, because we are a decent and compassionate people—a decent and compassionate people who always step up to the plate when there is an international crisis where we can lend a hand.

But I do need to say that, as well as a humanitarian response, we also need a security response, because the people of Syria are currently caught between the hammer of the death cult and its mass executions and the anvil of the Assad regime and its chemical weapons. What we need to do is to try to ensure that people can be safe in country as well as trying to ensure that people can be safe out of country and that people who are in camps, particularly persecuted minorities, women and children, have the prospect of a better life.

As members of this House would well know, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection is currently in Europe; I received a briefing from him this morning. Overnight he met the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He is now in Geneva and is meeting with the Director General of the International Organization for Migration. He is meeting with the International Committee of the Red Cross as well as other senior UN officials. The government will consider these discussions and the outcome of these talks in making our decision on Australia's contribution to the crisis.

This is a complex and difficult situation. We owe it to the human beings involved to make good and considered, as well as compassionate, decisions for their future. We do need to be prudent; we do need to plan. We should not delay, but nevertheless we do need to be careful, and I expect that within 24 hours the government will have much more to say on this matter.