George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that question. It is a very important question, and I am indebted to you for raising it. The Prime Minister has sent the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection to Europe overnight to confer with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Guterres, on how Australia can do more to deal with what you correctly describe as an unfolding humanitarian crisis. As you note, it is the case that Australia has announced already that it will be setting aside 4,400 places in our refugee and special humanitarian programs for Iraqi and Syrian citizens affected by those conflicts. Currently there are 13,750 places in the humanitarian and refugee programs. That will be increased to 18,750 places in 2018 and 2019. However, there is one premise of your question that I do not accept. You say that is a paltry number. It is per capita the highest number in the world. My source is the UNHCR Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2016 document, which tabulates the proportionate contributions of all the nations in the world to resettlement needs. We are all moved by this crisis. The Australian government has moved swiftly to see what more we can do, but do not make light of what we already do.