Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

( ) ( ): I seek leave to move the following motion :

That this House:

(1) express its deep concern that there are now more than 50 million endangered people displaced or on the move globally, including more than four million Syrians on account of the current conflict;

(2) call on the government to act immediately to quickly resettle in Australia 30,000 affected Syrians, all in addition to the current humanitarian intake of 13,750; and

(3) further calls on the government to permanently double Australia’s humanitarian intake from its current figure of 13,750 to 28,000.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Denison from moving the following motion:

That this House:

(1) express its deep concern that there are now more than 50 million endangered people displaced or on the move globally, including more than four million Syrians on account of the current conflict;

(2) call on the government to act immediately to quickly resettle in Australia 30,000 affected Syrians, all in addition to the current humanitarian intake of 13,750; and

(3) further calls on the government to permanently double Australia’s humanitarian intake from its current figure of 13,750 to 28,000.

The parliament must suspend standing orders and deal with this matter urgently. The scale of this humanitarian crisis cannot be underestimated. There are now more than 50 million people displaced or on the move around the world. This is the largest number since the end of World War II. There are now—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Just to assist the House, if I may: if the suspension of standing orders were to take place after question time, I advise that there would certainly be no objection to that. We are very early in question time, and I just wanted to provide that option to the member for Denison.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Denison has the call.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are now more than 50 million refugees globally. This is the largest number since the end of the World War II. There are now well over four million Syrians registered with the UNHCR. This is a humanitarian crisis of profound proportions.

We must suspend standing orders and deal with this motion urgently, because Australia has the capacity to act. We are the 12th largest economy in the world. We do indeed have boundless plains to share. If there is one country in the world that has the capacity to do much more, it is this country, it is Australia. With the 12th largest economy in the world, it is shameful that last year we recognised and resettled only 14,350 refugees. Last year, the number of refugees we recognised and resettled—those 14,350 refugees—was less than half of one per cent of all of the refugees recognised and resettled globally.

We like to make much of the fact that we are a generous country. It is said often that we are the most generous country when it comes to recognising and resettling refugees. That in fact is untrue. When you look at the number of people that we recognised and resettled last year—less than half of one per cent—that made us 22nd by raw numbers in order of countries recognising and resettling refugees. When you look at this country's effort with refugees on a per capita basis, we are 27th in the world—not first or second. When you look at this country with regard to GDP, we are the 46th country in the world when it comes to the number of refugees we recognise and resettle.

How on earth can we compare 14,350 refugees being recognised and resettled when last year Turkey recognised and resettled 1,027,137 refugees? How can we possibly compare ourselves to Lebanon, which last year recognised and resettled 364,129 refugees? How on earth can we compare ourselves to Afghanistan, which last year recognised and resettled 283,575 refugees? By comparison we recognised and resettled 14,350 refugees. Surely if there is one country that can do more—much more, and I do not mean an extra 5,000 over the next three years; I mean 30,000 this year—then it is our country. And our country will be all the richer for it, because among that 30,000 will be Syrian doctors, tradesmen, engineers, architects, nurses and social workers and any number of people who will undoubtedly add to this country's very rich multiculturalism.

Standing orders must be suspended and we must deal with this matter urgently, because we have contributed to the problem in the Middle East. You cannot disentangle Iraq from Syria or Syria from Iraq. When we helped invade Iraq 12½ years ago, we helped create the instability which racks the region to this day. When we gave diplomatic support to the Syrian rebels, we effectively gave diplomatic support to Islamic State, which was one of the rebel groups. We now find ourselves in this ludicrous situation where we supported the rebels but we are now going to bomb them; we are now going to bomb the enemy of President Assad. The member for Melbourne gestured a little while ago, 'But what are we doing about President Assad?' We are now going to bomb his enemies and basically become a de facto ally of Russia. How dare we criticise the Russians for having a military presence in Syria assisting President Assad when we are going to be bombing President Assad's enemies.

After the 2010 election when I was in negotiations with then Prime Minister Julia Gillard and then opposition leader Tony Abbott, the then opposition leader—

A government member interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Denison must confine himself to why standing orders should be suspended.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Speaker. Standing orders must be suspended because we must deal with this matter urgently. In fact, if we do deal with this matter urgently, perhaps the Prime Minister will find it in his heart today to again make the commitment that he made to me after the 2010 election that Australia would double its humanitarian intake, because we not only need to take a one-off large number of Syrians to do our share of the heavy lifting at this point in time; we also have to do a much greater share over years to come. There are 50 million people displaced and on the move at the moment around the world. We need to put in place a longer term solution. We need to be part of a longer term global solution. Surely that means doubling our humanitarian intake. If the then opposition leader could, after the 2010 election, bring himself to suggest that we double the humanitarian intake, surely the now Prime Minister can see it in his heart—and his government can see it in its heart—to do just that right now.

There is an urgent need to suspend standing orders and to deal with this matter right now. There is possibly no more pressing issue facing this parliament right now than the crisis in Syria. We can hold our press conferences, we can put out our press releases and we can come in here and talk till the cows come home, but until this parliament and this government deals decisively with this issue then everything we have done so far is just talk. So the challenge now for the Prime Minister and for the government is to do something strong today and say yes, we will bring in 30,000 Syrians, and not one of them will come from the existing humanitarian intake, we will be part of a long-term global solution, we will be a good citizen, we will work with the community of nations, we will not leave it to Western Europe to shoulder this alone and we will double our humanitarian intake. I can but hope that, although the government saw fit not to give me leave to address this matter now, the government can now see it in its heart to have the debate now and to deal with this matter now, as it must be done.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Denison for moving the suspension of standing orders. I know that he has done so fully believing in the remarks that he has made and with a full compassion for the plight of the refugees not just in the Middle East but all across the world. That concern, that compassion, is shared by this side of the House very genuinely and, I am sure, shared by all members of the House. The effects of the media over the last couple of days could not but have had a major impact on every single Australian—every right-thinking Australian—and that is why the government has been going through the methodical, sensible process of government that you would expect over the last 24 or 48 hours. At the moment, our Minister for Immigration and Border Protection is on his way home from Geneva, where he has been meeting with the appropriate people in the UNHCR. He will then give a report to the National Security Committee, to the cabinet, and decisions will be made to do two things—to ensure that we strike ISIS, the Daesh death cult, as effectively as possible in order to protect not just Australia's interests but the interests of all good people across the world; but also we will need to have a sensible response to the refugee crisis that is unfolding in the Middle East and in Europe.

The Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs have already indicated in answers to questions both today and yesterday the sensible measures the government is putting in place to do our part as a nation to help refugees across the world. We are already, per capita, the most generous country in the world in terms of refugees. That is something that I am very proud of and I think all members of this House should be proud of. So we are responding as a good government should respond, in a methodical, sensible, compassionate and measured way. To rush these discussions, to act with urgency as you suggest, because of the media cycle over the last 24 hours, would not be the actions of a sensible government. The urgency that the member for Denison talks about is an urgency to get the response right, to do it correctly, to follow proper cabinet government and good process. That is the urgency that is required, and that is what the Abbott government is doing in response to what we are seeing in the Middle East.

So we will not be dealing with this issue as a political issue. Therefore the government will not support this suspension of standing orders in the House today to stop question time and deal with this matter as a debate, because, at the end of the day, we want the decisions being made about refugees and about the war in the Middle East to be made sensibly and, if possible, in a bipartisan way, so the entire parliament and the country support the measures by the government and, hopefully, agreed to by the opposition and the crossbenches. For that reason, we will not be supporting the motion. We know the motion is moved in good faith, and we respond in good faith, but on this occasion we will continue with the good government that we are giving Australians and not respond in the political way that has been suggested by the member for Denison.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will not hold up the debate for long. Needless to say, as I indicated in a point of order, the issue that has been put before the parliament is an appropriate issue for there to be discussion on within the parliament—absolutely—and, Member for Denison, there is no objection from Labor to the issue being raised. The impact of it being raised at that point of question time is simply that we end up with less scrutiny of the government because question time gets wiped out at such an early point of time. That is why I put forward the option for the motion to be moved at a later hour, which has not been taken up.

That being the case, I would also simply note that there have been other occasions with the crossbench when the opposition has been notified and suspensions have been moved later during question time, and we have been able to support that. I understand, from the comments that were made, that notification was given to the government. It was not given to the opposition on this occasion. That is just how that transpired. But it is the case that everybody here would agree that there is a great import to the issues that have been put before us. There is absolutely no objection from us to having a parliamentary debate on that. We do not believe a consequence of having that debate should be a reduction in scrutiny of the government and the wiping out of a day's question time.

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

Very briefly—the member for Denison has covered most of the ground—I support the suspension motion. I fear that we are moving with great haste towards a decision to bomb Syria but with much less speed towards—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne needs to confine himself to why standing orders should be suspended.

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

But with much less speed towards taking refugees from that country. We do not have, at the moment, in this parliament an opportunity for full debates about decisions about how to respond to this unfolding crisis. We do not have the opportunities that they have in the United Kingdom parliaments, for example, or in the German parliaments or in the US, where these issues will be fully debated and parliamentary approval is necessary. That is why suspension of standing orders is necessary today—because we could well be in a situation where a decision is made to bomb a country before a decision is made to take refugees from there, because we do not have the opportunity to debate these matters in parliament. It is a significant step that the member for Denison has taken, but it is a right one, because events are moving very, very quickly, and people are seeing what is happening and they want the parliament to respond just as quickly. That is why this step is being taken.

Question negatived.