Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the:

(a) ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon;

(b) former Labor Government's contribution of $100.8 million to humanitarian assistance; and

(c) Government's contribution of $12 million; and

(2) calls on the Government to immediately increase its humanitarian aid commitment to people affected by the Syrian conflict.

I believe the motion will be seconded by the member for Freemantle in her remarks.

I rise today to speak on this motion before the House on the situation in Syria. The situation in Syria, and in the countries that border it, is now reaching a crisis point. Indeed it is an extraordinary disaster.

The hope bound up in the Arab Spring has given way to civil war. The regime's brutal crackdown has been matched by terror from extremist organisations. The conflict has already killed well over 100,000 people, with more than 10,000 of those children. The United Nations says about half of Syria's population, more than nine million people, are in urgent need of assistance. The latest United Nations figures estimate that close to 2½ million Syrian refugees now registered in the region and about 6½ million are internally displaced. More than half of those who have fled Syria are children. To demonstrate the growing nature of the crisis, in February 2013 there were around 700,000 registered Syrian refugees, and that number has more than tripled in just twelve months. The situation inside Syria is so bad that it has become virtually impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies in many parts of Syria.

Last April, then Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, described the conflict in Syria as 'one of the world's great humanitarian crises'. With a situation so terrible, it is not hard to see why more than two million people have fled Syria and most of those have gone to neighbouring countries. There are 580,000 registered refugees in Jordan out of a total population of 6.3 million.

Like Jordan, Lebanon has also seen a massive influx of refugees. There were at last count around 900,000 registered refugees and probably around 100,000 unregistered. That comes on top of the 270,000 Palestinian refugees who have been living in Lebanon for many years now. You have got to put this in context by remembering that the population of Lebanon is about 4.4 million, so it is like a city the size of Sydney having a million people come needing accommodation, food, education, health services, work and so on.

Looking at Jordan, the member for Fremantle and I visited the Zaatari camp through which more than 370,000 people have moved since July 2012. There are about 85,000 people there now, making it the fourth largest city in Jordan. Jordan and the UNHCR have constructed a second camp at Azraq to house even more people expected to come across the border in coming months. As I said earlier, around half of those who fled and children and around half of those living in these camps in Jordan are under 18 years old. International organisations like UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children and World Vision are responding to this crisis and it was with UNICEF that the member for Fremantle and I visited refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon recently. We saw the terrific, amazing work that these international organisations are doing on the ground in these camps but, as one of the workers said to us in Lebanon, 'We are band-aids on a gushing, gaping wound and the tide keeps coming. We have to adopt an approach of providing meagre support to those in most extreme need.'

Both Jordan and Lebanon are countries that have had their own struggles to deal with. They are not wealthy countries. They are now facing this crisis because they have no other choice. People in a neighbouring country are fleeing disaster and the governments of Lebanon and Jordan have expressed the desire to do all that they can to help. But of course this influx is stretching the resources of these countries. Clean water in Zaatari is struggling to keep up with demand. In January there were over 130 water truck deliveries and over 2,400 latrines had been built by donors. The camp itself is located above a large freshwater aquifer and so there are serious concerns about what happens with sewage, brown water and grey water getting into the aquifer. It is important to understand that Jordan is the fourth most water poor nation in the world, so that issue of the supply of water and the quality of the water supply is a very important one. Sanitation is obviously a huge challenge with the number of people who are moving into the camps and the challenge of being prepared to deal with those people moving in so quickly. There is also a huge need for medical supplies in Syria but also in Jordan and Lebanon, including the need for a very large-scale immunisation program because of a recent outbreak of polio.

When you look at what is happening both in Syria and in Lebanon and Jordan you see the very substantial strain put on existing infrastructure in the neighbouring countries are trying their best to help Syria. The surge in population has put severe strain on schools, hospitals and public infrastructure of all types. In Lebanon the schools have gone to two shifts per day because a population of school-aged children of about 300,000 go to schools in Lebanon and the number of Syrian refugee children that need schooling is also 300,000, so they have basically got the number of kids in their public schools doubled virtually overnight. So UNICEF is helping by training extra teachers and supporting schools to go to two shifts a day. But of course the majority of education is taking place in very informal settings, including tents in camps.

Syrian refugees are also encountering some resentment because they are taking any work they can get to supplement the small amount of money they have brought with them or the small amount they can get from the United Nations. In fact, the International Labour Organization estimates there are 170,000 Syrian minors working every day in Lebanon, desperately trying to supplement family income.

Housing is one of the greatest needs. Most of the housing we saw was very basic. People were living either in tents or in very poor rental accommodation for very high prices. Syrians are taking whatever accommodation they can get and consequently pushing up the price of rental properties as well; in some places by up to 300 per cent in a matter of weeks.

One of the big concerns is not just the scale of the humanitarian need but also the increased volatility in a region that is already very volatile. It is so important that we as an international community support a return to peace as quickly as possible, so as to reduce that volatility.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr sought for Australia, as a member of the UN Security Council, to play a pivotal role in helping the people of Syria. In 2013, Minister Carr developed a transition plan. The first of the plan's four points was the protection of aid workers. It states:

The plan called on opposition groups:

To ensure al-Qaida and other extremist groups are excluded from any future Syrian government.

On 22 February 2014 these sentiments were endorsed by the international community through the United Nations, with Australia playing a lead role. Along with Jordan and Luxembourg, Australia drafted a resolution at the UN Security Council that demanded:

… all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, promptly allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for UN humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners, including across conflict lines and across borders.

The resolution was eventually approved unanimously. The council has also called for an immediate end to all violence and condemned the rise of al-Qaeda affiliated terror groups.

But leading the international community toward protecting humanitarian access is not enough. We must support Syria with the investment of extra resources. The $12 million is simply not enough. (Time expired)

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to address the chamber on events in Syria, which continue to exasperate every country that gives active voice to humanitarian principles, the rule of law and democratic government. Syria is now in its fourth calendar year of violence, which began as a series of peaceful protests and is now a brutal civil war. Geographically, Syria is a small country about the size of Victoria, but it contains a terrified and besieged population about the size of Australia—some 23 million people. To date, as the member for North Sydney said, over 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced. Protagonists of every type—government, opposition, unaligned militia and roving mercenaries—kill, plunder and displace innocent civilians at will. Both conventional military weapons and chemical agents have been used on and against opponents and innocent civilians alike.

Confronted with the choice of reform or oppression, the al-Assad regime chose repression on a grand scale. The continuing bloodshed in Syria is a stain both on humanity in general and on this proud and ancient civilisation in particular. It is also a disaster that unfolds adjacent to some of the world's most strategically important and/or volatile nation states. I note that Syria has land borders with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. Together, these neighbours now shelter as many as two million displaced Syrians, the majority of whom are women and children. Syria also invites the involvement of outsiders in the form of foreign fighters or third-party-state players. In either case, the wise will see within this unfolding tragedy a potential and dangerous quagmire where more is never enough and the motives, agendas and alliances of protagonists are often impossible to determine.

Syria has also attracted what I call 'naive envoys' who engage in self-appointed crusades and who, in the process, inevitably prolong and complicate formal diplomatic efforts. Sydney University academic Dr Tim Anderson's meeting with Basher al-Assad is a case in point. In allowing himself to be manipulated by the al-Assad regime, Dr Anderson's efforts have been naive and unhelpful to UN and Australian officials, to the reputation of Sydney University and, most of all, to the innocent Syrian people. Ironically, perhaps only al-Assad and his henchmen benefit from such unwelcome interventions.

Another Sydney University academic, Professor Stuart Rees, met with a senior Hamas political leader who does not recognise the state of Israel and asserts the necessity of its destruction—a meeting that is also entirely at odds with Australia's diplomacy. The role of diplomacy today is rarely if ever assisted by private individuals like Anderson and Rees blundering onto the international stage and attempting to insert themselves into these situations.

But let us return to events in Syria, which tug at the heart while avoiding clear options let alone answers. If there is any clarity accompanying Syria's plight, it rests on two pressing imperatives. The first is to offer humanitarian comfort, when and where it is possible to do so. The second is to be extremely cautious whenever anyone suggests more direct, national strategic commitments. The most acute element of such caution is the illusory temptation to put military 'boots on the ground'. The coalition's approach to Syria sensibly and pragmatically accords with these realities. The Australian government has responded quickly and generously to events in Syria, with targeted and practical assistance. Since 2011, Australia has expended $112.8 million in support of the humanitarian relief effort in Syria.

The Australian government is actively working with the United Nations to bring the Syrian parties together. At the Geneva II Conference last month we heard Australian Ambassador, Peter Woolcott, calling on all dissenting parties to agree to a transitional governing body to end the violence. At the pledging conference in Kuwait last January Australia committed $10 million—exactly the same amount as the former government pledged at last year's conference. In addition, last January the government provided a $2 million contribution towards the destruction of Syria's deplorable chemical-weapons program, and the government is also pressing for better humanitarian access to relief agencies throughout Syria.

I note the foreign minister's announcement today welcoming the unanimous UN Security Council vote, over the weekend, for a breakthrough resolution—drafted by Australia, Jordan and Luxembourg—which orders the warring parties in Syria, particularly the al-Assad regime, to assist in the delivery of humanitarian aid. As someone who has lived and worked in Syria and South Lebanon, and who has delivered such aid, I can tell you that the cooperation of the government in power is absolutely vital for the effective distribution of aid in that country.

Most regrettably, however, there have been a number of impediments on the government's capacity to do more for Syria. These include the fact that funding for Syria comes from what is called the 'disaster fund', the mandated flexibility provision, which was reduced under the former government in December 2012 by almost $19 million. We saw a further reduction by Labor of allocated mandated flexibility from $120 million to $90 million in their 2013-14 budget and, of course, Australians are aware of the appalling economic legacy of $123 billion of accumulated deficits and peak debt forecast to rise to $667 billion within the decade. All of these reduce Australia's capacity to respond even more generously to disasters, humanitarian events and international tragedies, such as in Syria.

Clearly, Australian support has not included the use of military force and I will briefly elaborate on the reasons for this. In my view, the current situation in Syria is a compelling example of the limits of military intervention. Deputy Speaker, military power is most often if not always projected towards the achievement of one of two ends. The first is to forge or create peace. The second is to maintain a peace that has already been made. The former is peacemaking and the latter is peacekeeping. In Syria, the achievement of either is problematic. Peacemaking would be enormously challenging because every warring faction in Syria is, to some degree, tainted by degrees of corruption, war crimes or genocide, or political illegitimacy. Moreover, the exact number of factions at any one time is impossible to discern. Peacekeeping is clearly not possible for the obvious reason that there is no peace to keep. Equally, current conditions on the ground in Syria preclude easy use of a modern Western military force with requisite focus and precision—in other words, with the discrimination of a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. The latter, particularly in densely occupied built-up areas, would only add to the current destruction. Longstanding practical military experience, including time living and working in Syria as a UN military observer and as a participant in the first deployments to Afghanistan and Southern Iraq, has proven to me the truth of these observations. I have seen in person exactly the terrain and complexities of which I speak.

Today, very regrettably, Syria is a tragedy in freefall. Opposing factions seek to outdo one another in violence and atrocity. The otherwise innocent wider population is held captive to carnage and mayhem. Australia, of course, must continue to play its part in supporting international efforts to resolve this crisis. In Australia's case, this will continue to take the forms of renewed diplomatic lobbying and humanitarian support. Our concerted efforts to control Australia's national debt will, in due course, further increase Australia's capacity to support international emergencies and crises like the one we see in Syria.

Deputy Speaker, I finish with perhaps the saddest and starkest of realities: the nation of Syria is now ablaze and it is a fire that is fuelled on all sides by evil and avarice. Eventually, the fire will burn itself out but in the process will consume much of what is good about this nation state. Naive or reckless interventions only act as oxygen to feed and prolong the fire, and the attendant suffering. This remains and is likely to remain the Syrian dilemma. Our enduring and heartfelt sympathies continue with the innocent and besieged citizenry who remain the real victims in Syria. I thank the House.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion be agreed to. I call the member for Fremantle.

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my colleague, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, for this important motion. In January this year, in my capacity as Deputy Chair of the Australian Parliamentary Association for UNICEF, I was fortunate to join the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Senator Hanson-Young, and UNICEF Australia CEO, Norman Gillespie, on a visit to Jordan and Lebanon to see the situation of the Syrian refugees and to better understand the challenges faced by those countries who are now hosting millions of refugees. I undertook this visit because it is one thing to receive briefings from aid organisations in relation to the world's largest humanitarian crisis, and it is quite another to witness the crisis for yourself.

An intellectual understanding can never be an adequate replacement for seeing the agonised and anxious faces of men, women and children, and the poverty of their existence; for hearing stories of the barbarities from which they have fled and the difficulties they face as refugees; for seeing people who have to burn plastic bags and styrofoam in their tents for warmth, in spite of the terrible health consequences; for hearing from poor Jordanians and Lebanese of growing tensions between refugees and host communities because of the competition for jobs and already scarce educational, health and basic resources; for listening to the Prime Minister of Lebanon tell you that his country, which has not yet recovered from its own civil war, urgently needs international assistance to cope with the 1.2 million refugees who are camping anywhere they can in the small country of 4 million people—a small country that, despite its sliding economy and precarious political insecurity environment, is nevertheless continuing to accept 3,000 to 4,000 new refugees every single day.

Jordan, with a population of some 6 million people, initially welcomed the Syrian refugees, with many Jordanians taking them into their homes. Unfortunately, as numbers have grown, tensions have increased within the community as Jordan's economy and social structures struggle to cope. There are 600,000 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, and hundreds of thousands more unregistered. Eighty-five per cent of the refugees are living in urban centres throughout Jordan and the remainder are based in the Zaatri refugee camp. Jordanian health and education services are now stretched to the limit. There is a significant rise in child labour, with many refugee children working in bakeries, fish markets, selling goods, or simply begging on the street.

Time does not permit me to go into more detail but I would simply say that, if the situation in Jordan is very troubling, the situation in Lebanon is extremely bleak. In Lebanon there are more than 900,000 registered refugees and a few hundred thousand who are not registered for fear of being identified and attacked. In a country of four million, there are more than a million refugees—a quarter of Lebanon's population again—and more per capita than anywhere else in the world. With no formal refugee camps in Lebanon, desperate people are spread throughout the country, living in apartments, in abandoned buildings and parking lots or in informal tented settlements, where both services and access to utilities are extremely poor. Of the approximately 400,000 school-age Syrian children in Lebanon, more than 300,000 are not going to school. At least a third of the refugees are receiving no support whatsoever. As the UNICEF deputy representative explained to us, 'We're just putting a bandaid on a gaping, gushing wound.'

I would like to express my gratitude and admiration for the UN agencies and the local and international NGOs operating in a difficult environment with limited resources. It is difficult to overstate the scale of the crisis that is occurring. Presently that immense humanitarian challenge is being met by the adjacent host countries and by UN and aid organisations. There is a real risk that the host countries will be unable to deal with the escalating burden of the Syria conflict in the absence of substantial assistance. Given the instability already in the region, further unrest and disintegration would constitute a significant threat to global peace and security.

The international community must do more to provide humanitarian assistance for this crisis—and that includes Australia's contribution. The recent pledge of $12 million by the Abbott government towards the regional humanitarian response is, frankly, an embarrassing and shamefully inadequate gesture considering the immensity of the crisis, our capacity to assist and our historic and present role and involvement with the United Nations. Imagine if six million people—a quarter of Australia's population again—turned up on our doorstep needing help. The incredible stoicism and humanitarian instinct that has seen Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey host millions of refugees without complaint should provide an example to us here. It puts into stark and sad contrast the hysteria aroused in Australia by a few thousand boat people.

The daily horror show that is Syria reminds us of the terrors that cause people to leave their homes and everything they know. With the recent events of Manus Island very much in mind, it is time for us to think again about what sort of nation we want to be. Are we still the tolerant, generous, welcoming nation that believes in a fair go for all? At heart I believe we are, but we need to start showing it again, both in terms of our humanitarian aid and in the way we treat the people who seek our help.

Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion and state at the outset that the Australian government is greatly concerned by the tragic loss of over 100,000 lives in the Syrian conflict. In line with these concerns, the Australian government welcomes the unanimous adoption by the UN Security Council two days ago, on 22 February, of a breakthrough resolution on the humanitarian crisis in Syria. Australia, Jordan and Luxembourg drafted the resolution, which demands all parties, particularly the Syrian regime, cease deliberate attacks on the Syrian people, end sieges and the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and facilitate access for humanitarian assistance, including across conflict lines and border areas.

The Australian government was proud to co-lead in negotiating an outcome that focuses on the needs of the Syrian people. At the Kuwait II pledging conference in January 2014, Australia pledged $10 million of humanitarian assistance to Syria. This is exactly the same amount pledged by the Australian government at the previous Kuwait conference in 2013. In addition, this year the government provided $2 million for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, announced in January. Also, $100.8 million that was announced by the last government was expended over 27 months between May 2011 and August 2013.

It is important to note that the funding for humanitarian crises such as Syria is usually drawn from a part of the aid budget called 'mandated flexibility'. This is a pool of funding which can be drawn on for emerging or unforeseen priorities. It is an important tool which is able to be used in responding as an effective and responsible donor.

Regrettably, a fact which is notably not listed on the member for Sydney's motion is that not even the mandated flexibility provision was immune to Labor's poor financial management. In December 2012 Labor raided the mandated flexibility provision to the tune of almost $18 million to fund the $375 million Labor cut from the aid budget to pay for onshore asylum seeker costs. This action made the Gillard government itself the third largest recipient of Australia's aid program. In May 2013 Labor effectively reduced the mandated flexibility again when the 2013-14 allocation was reduced from $120 million to $90 million. The member for Fremantle can bleat all she likes about what has happened, but Labor were the very people who attacked the mandated flexibility provision, and in doing so they have affected our ability to respond this year to disasters and humanitarian events such as those in Syria. When the member for Sydney and the member for Fremantle call on this government to immediately increase its humanitarian aid commitment to the people affected by the Syrian conflict, they need to explain why the previous Labor government—a government of which she was part—ripped $48 million out of the aid budget in the six months between December 2012 and May 2013. The member sitting beside me highlighted the accumulated deficits and gross debt we were left with. This was another mess left by Labor for the Abbott government to clean up. This government has responsibly co-led the United Nations Security Council to unanimous agreement on what was a very difficult resolution after almost three years of deadlock during which it went nowhere.

I commend the work that is being done by the various aid agencies in Syria at a particularly difficult time. Members previously have spoken about the warring factions there and how difficult it has been to ensure that appropriate by aid is delivered in the appropriate way. I also commend the work being done by my parliamentary colleague the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Julie Bishop. I have every faith that under her stewardship Australia will continue to play its part in pursuing outcomes which focus on the needs of the Syrian people and helping them work through the very difficult and troubling times ahead for Syria. I commend her work.

Debate Adjourned.