Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) according to the UNHCR, the number of displaced people fleeing from war, conflict or persecution is the highest since World War II, and includes around half a million refugees and asylum seekers in South East Asia;

(b) the increase in the number of people seeking asylum in recent years and the decrease in the number of third country resettlement places being offered in 2017 means that refugees face waiting more than a decade before they are able to safely restart their lives;

(c) during the Leaders' Summit on Refugees and Migrants at the United Nations in New York City in 2016, the Canadian Government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Open Society Foundations launched a joint initiative to increase the private sponsorship of refugee resettlement around the world;

(d) since the late 1970s, the Canadian Government has facilitated the resettlement of more than 275,000 refugees through private sponsorship by individuals, community groups and private sector organisations; and

(e) the previous Australian Government initiated a community sponsorship program in Australia in 2012 and the current Australian Government committed to making this program permanent during the Leaders' Summit on Refugees and Migrants; and

(2) calls on Australian governments, businesses and community organisations to explore ways to use private sponsorship to expand the resettlement of refugees in Australia through formal channels.

The international refugee crisis is the defining humanitarian issue of our time. It is a challenge that Australia has all too often failed to rise to. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, there are currently around 65 million displaced people around the world fleeing from war, conflict and persecution—the most since World War II. There are around half a million refugees and many more displaced people in our own region. It is not an easy issue from a policy or a moral perspective.

The problem raises difficult choices with uncertain consequences. People of good faith can and will disagree about the best role Australia can play in response to this humanitarian crisis. While it may not often feel like it in the day-to-day political clamour, there are areas of agreement within the community, civil society and even this parliament about the role that Australia should play. I believe that we can build out from these areas of consensus in this country to increase the positive impact that Australia can have on the international refugee crisis. In this vein, I want to thank the member for Mallee for agreeing to second this motion, and the member for McMillan for agreeing to speak on it today.

One area of consensus on this issue is the importance of humanitarian resettlement of refugees formally registered with the UNHCR to Australia. The importance of resettlement has grown significantly in recent times, as the total number of refugees for whom third country resettlement is the only possible durable solution has increased dramatically, while at the same time the total number of third country resettlement places is set to fall significantly as a result of the Trump administration's decision to cut the total number of people that the United States settles by more than half, from 110,000 per year to a maximum of 50,000. I recently travelled through Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar—with Save the Children, but at my own expense—to learn more about the refugee experience in our region. I heard over and over again during that trip what impact these trends have had on the pathways confronting people seeking asylum. A 10-year wait for a durable solution is not unusual, and the less vulnerable amongst these people—men without families, without women and children—can expect a much longer wait.

Australia's humanitarian resettlement quota has fluctuated in recent years. It is encouraging to see it begin to increase again, after the Abbott government's decision to reduce the humanitarian program to 13,750 in 2014. Labor's policy at the last election proposed increasing the humanitarian program to 27,000 a year. I note that the Turnbull government has proposed increasing the humanitarian program to 16,250 visas in 2017-18 and 18,750 visas in 2018-19. However, both sides of politics recognise that there is a cost to the Commonwealth budget of increasing the quota in this way.

Australia invests substantially in arrivals under the humanitarian program, both in visa processing costs and in settlement services, and this is appropriate. Increasing the humanitarian program through these channels would cost the Commonwealth budget hundreds of millions of dollars. In contrast, community or private sponsorship of the resettlement of refugees in Australia offers an alternative pathway to resettlement that offers the potential to avoid this constraint. Community or private sponsorship programs allow non-government actors—businesses, religious organisations, community groups and individuals—to meet the costs of visa applications and resettlement services for refugees, either via direct financial contributions or the provision of in-kind goods and services.

The Gillard government initiated a community sponsorship pilot in Australia, capped at 500 places in 2012. While imperfectly designed, the department of immigration concluded that it 'could provide an additional resettlement pathway'. In September 2016 the Turnbull government committed to making the program permanent and increasing the intake to 1,000 within the existing refugee resettlement quota, as part of then President Obama's refugee summit in New York.

We do need to exercise care in this regard. Community sponsorship should not be used as a substitute for government sponsorship. This would introduce discrimination in favour of refugees with connections to those with means relative to those without in our humanitarian program. However, this pathway to resettlement that Australia has taken tentative steps down in recent years holds great potential for expanding resettlement through formal channels. Indeed, Canada has had a private sponsorship of refugees program since 1978, which has resettled well over 200,000 refugees over and above those resettled with government funding.

During the United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York last year, the UNHCR, the government of Canada and the Open Society Foundations launched a joint initiative to increase private sponsorship of refugees around the world. In this regard, I call on Australian civil society to join in this international effort to seek to build consensus across the political spectrum and across the business and community sectors for the use of community private sponsorship to expand the resettlement of refugees in Australia through formal channels. Perhaps the Australian community can do a better job at this task than those of us in this parliament.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder?

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are many good people in this chamber who want to talk about this important topic. I have recently been reading a book by Laurence Rees about the Holocaust. How did the Holocaust happen? How did an elected government bring in a policy that ultimately led to the destruction of millions of people around the world? That book talks about dealing with refugees in the 1930s. The Western world—nations such as America and Great Britain—that should have done more failed to do more simply because they had not taken their populations along on the journey. One thing we as political leaders have to do is take our populations along on the journey. My contribution to this discussion tonight will be about a small community that has taken its population along on the journey so that refugees can be seen as a benefit, not as a sheer cost.

There is a small town in the electorate of Mallee called Nhill. It is a beautiful small town. They could not get people to work in Luv-a-Duck, to expand their employment opportunities. The kindergarten was nearly shut down and the school was not full. A guy by the name of John Millington, who was a compassionate man, with the assistance of his wife, began to look at how we could sponsor and bring refugees in to fill a labour force. But it has turned out to be so much more than that. It has turned out to be something that has not only brought a labour force into the town but changed the culture of the town and opened the hearts of the people in the town. There has been a recent report that it has also contributed $41 million to the economic activity of a town of about 3,000 people. It is extraordinary. The school is now full and the kindergarten is now full. It is very hard to find a house, and in fact there are new houses being built in this town.

But there were some things that needed to be done. There needed to be strong leadership in the host community. You had to think about these people as not just a workforce, because if you are bringing a male in you have to bring their family in. They have to have a sense of family, so you have to think about how it is done. There had to be people in that community who could integrate people. A small example is that, when they would arrive at Melbourne airport, they would see yellow taxis. The police force who had been killing them overseas drove yellow cars, so they had instant fear from seeing a yellow taxi because they thought their lives were at risk.

An honourable member: It probably was, being in a taxi!

Maybe it was, getting into a taxi in Melbourne! They needed someone to help them integrate. There needed to be some initial accommodation for new arrivals, there needed to be support for new families, there needed to be some management of the degree of cultural adjustment and there also needed to be the potential for the community to embrace them, and it has actually worked. I say to people who are a little apprehensive about Australia taking in more refugees that it is really about what services we are going to provide, what communities we are going to put people in and how we are going to get them integrated into our community. I think, if we think of it with that perspective and we put that work around it, we can actually do this.

This private member's motion, which I was very happy to have Tim come and suggest to me, is really about private industries and private communities saying, 'How can we play an active role in bringing people out of these camps?' These are beautiful people. The Karen refugees are very dear to my heart. There are still 140,000 in the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. When I went there they gave me a big Karen outfit. They told me it is what they give people who are of significance and power, but I am not sure. It could be the outfit they give to someone who is the court jester. They could have been having a bit of fun with me—we laugh a lot.

It has brought so much to the community. I am so proud of humble country folk who are being part of the solution, not part of the problem. They are saying, 'Come to our town and settle here.' We can replicate this in many towns across Australia, and it will bring so much good. I reckon private sponsoring really needs a push along so that we can bring people from those camps, integrate them into our communities and lift those communities, not just for the economic activity but also for the sense of worth, purpose and soul that this brings to our town.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am also very pleased to speak on this motion put by the member for Gellibrand, my friend, and the member for Mallee. It relates to an issue that is close to my heart, because my parents came to Australia from Egypt 47 years ago. They escaped a region where conflict was the norm and opportunities were very limited. We know that the most recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the statistical yearbook, states that there are some 65 million forcibly displaced people around the globe. That includes around 21.3 million refugees in UNHCR camps. Half of that number are under the age of 18. Global numbers of displaced people have trebled since World War II, and the global community must confront what I think is the reality: that we are in the midst of a global humanitarian crisis. The UNHCR validates this assertion by noting that the number of displaced people fleeing from war, conflict or persecution is at present the highest since World War II. This includes in our region around half a million refugees and asylum seekers just in South-East Asia.

I have said previously in this place, including in my first speech here, that Australia must put aside partisan politics to work to find sustainable and compassionate solutions for the international refugee crisis, so I am heartened by the bipartisan support for this motion that has been put by the member for Gellibrand. Australian governments, businesses and community organisations exploring ways to provide private sponsorship and expand the resettlement of refugees in Australia through formal channels is a very good idea. Community or private sponsorship programs would allow non-government entities such as businesses, religious organisations, community groups and individuals to meet the costs of visa applications and resettlement services for refugees, either via direct financial contributions or the provision of in-kind goods and services. It is one creative and compelling initiative that can help tackle the global crisis which I have mentioned. I note, as previous speakers have, that Canada is a very good example of this model being successfully employed. Since 1978 it has resulted in Canada successfully settling more than 275,000 people over and above those resettled through government funding.

This motion also acknowledges the efforts of the UNHCR and the Open Society Foundations to advance this model in many other nations. During the United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York last year, the UNHCR, the government of Canada and the Open Society Foundations launched a joint initiative to increase private sponsorship of refugees around the world. Business and civil society groups, I understand, will be campaigning for this objective in Australia and around the world over the next 12 months. It is a good cause and a good initiative.

In the past I have expressed a desire for Australia to take a leadership role in brokering a multilateral solution for the 21 million refugees in UNHCR camps worldwide. I have talked about an international agreement between 10, 15 or 20 countries to take an additional 30,000, 40,000 or 50,000 refugees a year, which would start to be a real solution, resulting in half a million to a million refugees being resettled to a safe haven each year. We can only do this with an international framework that involves multiple countries. This particular initiative of private and community sponsorship is just one such way that Australia can have a positive impact on the challenges the international community faces with this humanitarian crisis.

I note the previous Labor government commenced a community sponsorship pilot program in 2012, and I note that this government committed to making the program permanent as part of US President Obama's refugee summit last year. That was a very good initiative by both the past Labor government and the present coalition government. The current program is capped at 1,000 places within our current intake quota. Australia certainly cannot solve the global humanitarian crisis on its own. It cannot solve the international refugee problem on its own. But it is important that we play our part by meeting our obligations as a good global citizen. I think together multiple nations can do their part to have a positive impact on the situation that we are all facing. So I will take this opportunity to once again state that we as a nation can and must do more when it comes to the global humanitarian and refugee crisis which is upon us. Every action we take will have an impact, and this initiative, I believe, will ensure it is a positive impact. Of course, what will flow from that is the potential to save lives. Every life saved is a victory.

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would be a hypocrite if I did not say that Ann Jones from Maryknoll rang me today. She is not happy with the way this nation is treating its asylum seekers, especially those on Manus and Nauru. She shares that with a lot of people. I have to say to you here, very sincerely, that it is up to this parliament to give the Prime Minister and the opposition leader the best shot they can possibly have to resolve the situation of the dilemma we face today for the Australian people.

I want to mention the member for Gellibrand and thank him for bringing this forward. I will name him so that the public listening to this know that the member for Gellibrand is Tim Watts, a Labor member. What he has put out is a clarion call for compassion, conscience and common sense. What we can actually do here in this moment is look at what other countries have done in the first instance about bringing people in, whether it be 500 more or, as in Canada's case, 275,000 over and above quota.

Canada has 36 million people. We have 24.6 million people. They have brought in 275,000 over and above their quota. Under Tony Abbott, it was 13,750, commendable; for Shorten, the desire was 27,000; and Turnbull had 16,250 but 'I'll up you to 18,750'. The difficulty is that it is a tiny drop in the bucket for those just in our own region. In our region, we have five times the number of people who go to the grand final and some home-and-away games waiting off our shores. I know we cannot take them all; I am not even dreaming about taking them all. But what we can do is say, 'Righto, where a community wants to sponsor families or individuals, we could make it easier for them to do that.'

There was a pilot program under the Gillard-Rudd government and that has been followed through by the Turnbull government. It is all positive, but it is 500 people. That is terrific but there are more people who go through the pie stand at the MCG in about 20 minutes than that. We are a better country than that. We have talked about our values and the way we approach this world. We have a view of ourselves as the fair go country, as the country that really makes a difference to its populace by saying, 'No, no, no. It doesn't matter if it is education or the law—any area of life—we're going to make sure that you get a fair go.' My dad always said to me, 'Give them a fair go.' Fairness is in our DNA, but we do not carry that through internationally in the way that I believe we should. I cannot stand here and say, 'Well, I can't say this because my party will be upset with me,' because this is about relationships.

What the member for Gellibrand has put forward is this: you bring a group of people into a community that has sponsored it and so they have skin in the game. They want a desired outcome because they have sponsored it; it has cost them money. They want an outcome from those people, but what it causes within that community—which the member for Mallee raised without actually saying it—is that it enhances the relationships between the refugee and the broader community. It is not a matter of integrating them into the community; they are already there because they have skin in the game. You have to make it work because we have committed ourselves to this. These are the important things that this type of program which the member for Gellibrand has raised with us for our discussion tonight.

I do not know what it would be like to be displaced and to be on my own tonight, but I would like to think there is some Australian somewhere with, as Tim Watts said, a community or private sponsorship program to allow non-government actors like business or religious organisations or community groups and individuals to meet the costs of that visa application. I am really sorry that I am out of time, because this can be an important program that everybody can get value from. You can actually feel good about something we are doing together as a nation. I commend the member for Gellibrand for bringing it to the attention of the parliament.

David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I thank my colleague and the member for Gellibrand Tim Watts. I am also proud to be in the company tonight of both the member for Macmillan and my neighbour the member for Wills. I thank them for bringing forward this important motion in support of community sponsorship for refugees.

The former Labor government initiated a pilot community sponsorship program for 500 places in 2012 and under the program individuals, businesses and community organisations were able to sponsor applicants within the Australian refugee and humanitarian program. These sponsors covered the cost of visa requirements and the provision of practical resettlement assistance. By involving community organisations from the applicant stage, and particularly in the practical resettlement stage, we were able to leverage the substantial community capacity that exists within Australia. The program was not without its flaws, in particular around its ad hoc nature and the heavy reliance on approved proposing organisations to work with families and sponsors to facilitate the process. However, the program was extremely popular with the response to its introduction vastly exceeding available places. In addition, a 2015 department of immigration review of the pilot was largely positive, finding the program could provide an additional resettlement pathway. The initial evidence showed that there were higher and faster grant rates for humanitarian visas under this program.

I am pleased that the Turnbull government committed to making this program permanent during President Obama's refugee summit in New York in September of last year. They also committed to increased the intake to 1,000. While in and of themselves these are commendable actions, I am disappointed and concerned that the increase, and the commitment itself, exists only within the current resettlement quota. By operating this program within the existing quota, all of us miss a key opportunity to make a difference. I believe we undermine the very purpose of community sponsorship, which is to expand our humanitarian intake and to do so without burdening taxpayers.

Instead, by including any community sponsorship program in the existing quota, the Turnbull government's current program is pushing the cost and the responsibility for resettling refugees onto the private sector. That is not good enough, because ultimately that is about cost shifting and not compassion. I believe we can and should do better by making community sponsorship an expanded part of Australia's humanitarian policy package and by making it an addition to, rather than including it within, our existing humanitarian intake.

Canada provides a real example of the positive role community sponsorship can play, with over a quarter of a million refugees processed through a similar program. Importantly, Canada's program supplements the government intake scheme.

There are currently an estimated 65 million displaced people globally, with the UNHCR estimating that more than 1.1 million are in need of permanent resettlement. Australia can and should do more to provide leadership in our region and to make sure we bring more refugees to Australia safely by increasing our contribution to the UNHCR, placing Australia within the top five global contributors; by restoring the 1951 Refugee Convention to the Migration Act, reversing the Abbott government's attempts to undermine international law; by building a regional humanitarian framework in our region through real leadership, including advocating for the rights of refugees in transit countries; by protecting the interests of children by introducing an independent children's advocate; and by creating a safe, humane environment in immigration processing through faster processing, independent oversight, transparency and third-party resettlement.

I am proud that Labor has committed to increasing our annual humanitarian intake to 27,000, almost doubling the current number reached under this government of only 13,750. Community sponsorship can offer an alternative pathway for resettlement. It is another way for more refugees to come to Australia, to come safety and to come in a way that does not overly burden the Australian taxpayer. By way of example, in my own community, I have encountered many Middle Eastern Christian communities, in particular, who are deeply anxious about the fate of relatives and coreligionists in Syria and Iraq. The Melkite congregation in Fairfield, led by Father Samir, and the congregation of Saint George's orthodox cathedral in Fairfield, led by Reverend Father George Nassir and the secretary George Ibrahim, are already doing all they can to bring refugees to Australia to resettle them. For instance, in the case of the cathedral, there are families living there and getting support from that community. Those communities, those people and their passion can be put to greater use, and this can be done in a way that makes a positive contribution.

I commend this motion. I commend the member for Gellibrand for bringing it forward. I hope to see a sponsorship program that is additional to our intake and that forms an important part of Australia's humanitarian framework.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the next day of sitting.