Kay Patterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Migration (Climate Refugees) Amendment Bill 2007 put forward by the Greens and want to start by noting that we currently have a migration program which is designed to serve economic, social and demographic objectives. As well, we have a substantial humanitarian program which resettles people who have been subjected to persecution or gross violence or violation of their human rights in their home country.

It has been traditional that we take significant advice from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees regarding our refugee and humanitarian program. They assist in outlining where they think the highest priority lies with the refugee population around the world, which is estimated to be somewhere between 20 and 25 million people. Obviously, Australia cannot take all of those people, so they have an orderly and reasonably fair process, and we are guided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We obviously sometimes have disagreements with them from time to time, and sometimes those differences are quite significant, but they are an appropriate body to assist us in making those decisions.

In 2005-06, our humanitarian intake was 14,000 people, and this is one of the most generous intakes in the world on a per capita basis. If you put per capita measures aside, we are one of the top three nations in absolute terms in relation to our humanitarian intake. We are up there with the USA and Canada; nations which are much larger than us. And, as I said, we are one of the top three nations in the world in absolute terms in humanitarian intake. I just wanted to put all of this in perspective.

We also have a very proud record in assisting people, both here and abroad, when it comes to a crisis. Aceh is a perfect example. I happened to be in Italy on Boxing Day in December 2004 at the time the tsunami occurred in Indonesia. Even though I do not speak Italian, although I did have reasonable Italian when I was about nine years old, it was quite obvious that Australia featured in the headlines of the Italian newspapers because of our quick, significant and world record monetary contribution to Aceh. We have a proud record in assisting people in crises. That did not happen to be global warming; that happened to be a seismic shift in the earth’s crust. I have to note that, in the bill, the Greens do not mention that. They do not even mention people being displaced as a result of a significant seismic shift which causes permanent changes in people being relocated. It is not even mentioned in this bill. We are only picking global warming because that is the sort of issue that they think they will get a run on.

Let me just say too that I happened to be Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and the Minister for Foreign Affairs when the Kosovars and the East Timorese were here. Four thousand-odd Kosovars at something like two weeks notice were coming to Australia and walking off those planes, some of them with nothing and some of them with nothing more than a plastic bag. And what happened? I am having difficulty, Mr Acting Deputy President, with the chatter that is going on; it is distracting.