Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This week, the whole world has been party to a Syrian family's grief. Their anguish is painfully personal. Their tragedy, unfortunately, is not. It is shared not only by the parents of the countless children who have died while they were trying to reach safety but by the parents of the estimated 12,000 children who have been killed in Syria in the fighting that has claimed their schools and their homes and that ultimately claimed their lives. The numbers are so big as to be unimaginable—over 220,000 people dead and more than 11 million people displaced inside and outside of Syria's borders. These figures tell us what anyone with a heart knows: the fighting in Syria is more than a security issue; it is a global humanitarian crisis.

Weeks ago, the member for Sydney pointed out that this was the case and suggested that this humanitarian crisis required humanitarian assistance. In response, the Minister for Foreign Affairs joked about picnic hampers for terrorists. Well, last week's harrowing images changed that conversation. There is no room today for glib remarks about the suffering of millions.

It is difficult to look at the crowds of desperate faces on the beaches in Turkey or at the train stations in Hungary and not want to do something. Labor believes there is a place for action not only by countries that Syrian refugees can reach but by countries who can reach Syrian refugees. We as Australians can do more. That is why we want to give places to 10,000 Syrian refugees above and beyond our ordinary humanitarian allocation. Today, we called on the Prime Minister to convene a bipartisan emergency meeting between state premiers, community leaders, the government and the opposition to work out how we can accommodate these people who need our help.

The families who have reached Europe are the most visible faces of Syria's humanitarian crisis, but there are more than four million refugees hosted by five countries that border Syria. In Lebanon, one in every five people is a Syrian refugee. It is unfair and unrealistic to expect these countries to shoulder this responsibility alone. That is why we call on the government to commit $100 million to humanitarian efforts in the region. This would buy rehabilitated schools for over 950,000 schoolkids, as well as food assistance for over 100,000 affected Syrian people. It would buy essential immunisations for over 1.4 million children under five and housing solutions for over 20,000 families as well as provide safe spaces and quality care to 50,000 women and girls.

Across Europe, people have opened their hearts and their homes, from the Pope calling for every parish to host a family to the Finnish Prime Minister offering to host refugees in his family home. Even as the newsreels show us the worst of human nature in Syria, the stories of German authorities overwhelmed by donations of food and blankets show us at our best.

I have spoken to so many people and organisations here in Australia who are motivated by the same sense of generosity and compassion. I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them. We are lucky to have a network of people who work hard to make sure that the refugees are not merely admitted into our country but are made to feel a part of our community. That is the Australia I recognise and the Australia we recognise in ourselves.

There have been too many people in this debate who have wanted to talk only to our darker sides and stoke our fears. This week proved them wrong. People across Australia have hugged their children a little tighter and said that we are a country that wants to help. Labor calls on the government to let Australia do just that.