Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] What's not fair is to have a circumstance where people smugglers across different parts of Asia take advantage of some of the most vulnerable people: take advantage by taking their money; take advantage by putting them on rickety boats, dangerous boats; take advantage by putting them in harm's way, where they may find themselves losing their lives on a perilous journey to Australia, as many others did before. What wouldn't be fair would be if community confidence in our humanitarian program, our migration program, were undermined to the extent that we were unable to continue to be one of the most generous countries in the world on a per capita basis when it comes to the resettlement of refugees. It wouldn't be fair if it were undermined to the extent that we were unable to make the types of decisions we have made to put a dedicated number of places in place to support Afghani citizens. That's why it's important that we maintain confident settings in those programs so that we can give priority where appropriate by maintaining that community confidence in an orderly system.