Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note that today is World Refugee Day, a day on which we recognise and raise awareness of the more than 15.2 million registered refugees and the 26.4 million people around the world who have been displaced from their homes due to violence, persecution, famine, drought and global warming. Australia's share of the world's refugee crisis, capped at 13,750 places per year, is a very small one. I hope that we will do more.

This year the theme for International Refugee Week is restoring hope by significantly increasing our refugee intake, both from among those desperate people waiting in camps in Africa and elsewhere for resettlement, and those people barely existing in Indonesia and Malaysia. We could restore some hope and lessen the incentives for people to undertake dangerous boat journeys across our oceans. This would also be welcomed by our neighbours who bear the brunt of the refugee influx and who are far less resourced to cope than we are. The evidence shows that, for those who arrive in Australia by whatever means seeking asylum, measures like detention do not reduce demand. They merely increase mental illness among people already traumatised, most of whom will ultimately become Australian citizens.

I welcome the majority findings of the recent select committee report into immigration detention chaired by the member for Banks and trust that its recommendations, including with regard to establishing an independent review process for refugees with negative ASIO security assessments and alternatives to indefinite detention, are being seriously considered and will be implemented as soon as possible.