Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Evans. Is the minister aware of reports today from the Refugee Council of Australia that suggests Australia’s refugee and humanitarian program has dropped to 6.6 per cent of the nation’s total migration program, the lowest in 35 years, despite the rise in the number of people seeking resettlement around the globe? Given that the government continues to inform us—and I realise there is opposition to that from the coalition—of the global rise in numbers of refugees around the world, what is the reasoning behind Australia’s decrease in our humanitarian intake?