Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. There is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis unfolding in Syria and surrounding countries. All Australians have been shocked by those horrifying images that have emerged, including the tragic photo of the police officer carrying the body of the poor, deceased little three-year-old boy. Will the Prime Minister join with Labor in a bipartisan fashion and commit to offering 10,000 extra humanitarian places in Australia to refugees displaced by the Syrian crisis?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do appreciate this question from the Leader of the Opposition. He has asked it in a good spirit and with a good heart. There is a good spirit and a good heart in this parliament and in our country. We always want to do the right thing by people in trouble, and we are not going to let people in trouble down now. We never have and we never will. It is the Australian way, to look after people when they are in trouble.

I agree with the Leader of the Opposition that there is an unprecedented crisis. It is, as he said earlier this afternoon, probably the most serious humanitarian crisis that we have seen. It is the greatest mass movement of people that we have seen since the end of the Second World War and the partition of India. So it is a very serious crisis. I also agree with the Leader of the Opposition that all of us were moved to tears by that poignant image of the drowned child on a beach in Turkey.

I do agree that this parliament should, as far as is possible, act in a unified, collegial fashion when it comes to responding to crises overseas. This parliament, for all of the difficulties and disagreements we have had, has so far been able to speak pretty much with one voice on national security issues. And when it comes to a humanitarian crisis like this, I would like us to continue to speak as far as we can with one voice and to respond as far as we can as one united nation.

So I do appreciate the suggestions that the Leader of the Opposition has made. As the Leader of the Opposition knows, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Mr Dutton, is in Europe now. His discussions with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration, and with our friends, partners and allies in Europe are now underway. I think it is important that we hear his report. That is what I hope to do overnight before we start to finalise a response. I would say that any response that we do finalise in the next 24 or 48 hours may in fact need to be revised further as this particular crisis unfolds. But it is my intention to listen to the minister and to see what advice he has received from the people on the spot—to weigh the advice that he has received from the experts who are already grappling with this crisis and who have been grappling with this crisis for some time now. I can assure the Leader of the Opposition that he will be briefed and that the parliament will be kept updated.