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

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister advise the House on Australia's response to the Syrian humanitarian crisis? How is the government's strong and consistent approach to border protection helping men, women, children and persecuted minorities fleeing the conflict in Syria and the surrounding areas?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brisbane for her question and her ongoing interest in these matters. She is a great supporter of the refugee community in Brisbane. She is like many people in this parliament who work very hard to make sure that we can provide a new life for people who could not have imagined growing up in a country like ours.

Last week I was in Jordan and in Lebanon, and I had the opportunity of meeting people within the Zaatari camp in Jordan. In that camp there are about 80,000 people, including 40,000 children. We spoke with the UN officials there and others who facilitated the visit about the increasing need for humanitarian assistance and also for countries like ours to provide settlement opportunities for people from those camps. It is very important for all of us to realise, as I know many people in this place do, that the situation in Syria is deteriorating and as winter approaches the situation becomes more and more dire, in particular for those families with children.

This government has promised $44 million, which will provide assistance to some 240,000 humanitarian refugees within the camps. That brings to $230 million the amount that our country has provided by way of humanitarian assistance since 2011. Of course, the government announced in September that we would provide 12,000 places within the humanitarian and refugee program to people who have been displaced from Syria and Iraq. As at 1 November this year, 2,218 people have had initial assessments undertaken. We are continuing the security and health checks of those people so that we might settle those people as quickly as possible in Australia.

At the embassy in Amman, I had the great honour of presenting to four families their immigration cards, their travel documents, to come to Australia, and I hope that those people will be here before Christmas. I think all of us in this country have been very proud of the response across the nation. I also say thank you very much to the states and territories. There is, in effect, a bidding war going on between the premiers and chief ministers to encourage Syrians to come to their particular part of the country, and I think that is a great thing. It is a dividend of the hard work that this government has undertaken to keep our borders secure and to make sure that we can have an orderly migration program. Our country already had, on a per capita basis, the highest number of settlements under the refugee and humanitarian program compared to any other country in the world. The fact that, in addition to those 13,750 places that we can offer this year, we are offering the additional 12,000 places to those people most in need should make all of us in this place and across the country very proud.