Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Speaker. Standing orders must be suspended because we must deal with this matter urgently. In fact, if we do deal with this matter urgently, perhaps the Prime Minister will find it in his heart today to again make the commitment that he made to me after the 2010 election that Australia would double its humanitarian intake, because we not only need to take a one-off large number of Syrians to do our share of the heavy lifting at this point in time; we also have to do a much greater share over years to come. There are 50 million people displaced and on the move at the moment around the world. We need to put in place a longer term solution. We need to be part of a longer term global solution. Surely that means doubling our humanitarian intake. If the then opposition leader could, after the 2010 election, bring himself to suggest that we double the humanitarian intake, surely the now Prime Minister can see it in his heart—and his government can see it in its heart—to do just that right now.

There is an urgent need to suspend standing orders and to deal with this matter right now. There is possibly no more pressing issue facing this parliament right now than the crisis in Syria. We can hold our press conferences, we can put out our press releases and we can come in here and talk till the cows come home, but until this parliament and this government deals decisively with this issue then everything we have done so far is just talk. So the challenge now for the Prime Minister and for the government is to do something strong today and say yes, we will bring in 30,000 Syrians, and not one of them will come from the existing humanitarian intake, we will be part of a long-term global solution, we will be a good citizen, we will work with the community of nations, we will not leave it to Western Europe to shoulder this alone and we will double our humanitarian intake. I can but hope that, although the government saw fit not to give me leave to address this matter now, the government can now see it in its heart to have the debate now and to deal with this matter now, as it must be done.

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