Mr WILKIE ( Denison ) ( 14:20 ): I seek leave to move the following motion : That this House: (1) express its deep concern that there are now more than 50 million endangered people displaced or on the move globally, including more than four million Syrians on account of the current conflict; (2) call on the government to act immediately to quickly resettle in Australia 30,000 affected Syrians, all in addition to the current humanitarian intake of 13,750; and (3) further calls on the government to permanently double Australia’s humanitarian intake from its current figure of 13,750 to 28,000. Leave not granted. Mr WILKIE: I move: That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Denison from moving the following motion: That this House: (1) express its deep concern that there are now more than 50 million endangered people displaced or on the move globally, including more than four million Syrians on account of the current conflict; (2) call on the government to act immediately to quickly resettle in Australia 30,000 affected Syrians, all in addition to the current humanitarian intake of 13,750; and (3) further calls on the government to permanently double Australia’s humanitarian intake from its current figure of 13,750 to 28,000. The parliament must suspend standing orders and deal with this matter urgently. The scale of this humanitarian crisis cannot be underestimated. There are now more than 50 million people displaced or on the move around the world. This is the largest number since the end of World War II. There are now— Mr Burke: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Just to assist the House, if I may: if the suspension of standing orders were to take place after question time, I advise that there would certainly be no objection to that. We are very early in question time, and I just wanted to provide that option to the member for Denison. The SPEAKER: The member for Denison has the call. Mr WILKIE: There are now more than 50 million refugees globally. This is the largest number since the end of the World War II. There are now well over four million Syrians registered with the UNHCR. This is a humanitarian crisis of profound proportions. We must suspend standing orders and deal with this motion urgently, because Australia has the capacity to act. We are the 12th largest economy in the world. We do indeed have boundless plains to share. If there is one country in the world that has the capacity to do much more, it is this country, it is Australia. With the 12th largest economy in the world, it is shameful that last year we recognised and resettled only 14,350 refugees. Last year, the number of refugees we recognised and resettled—those 14,350 refugees—was less than half of one per cent of all of the refugees recognised and resettled globally. We like to make much of the fact that we are a generous country. It is said often that we are the most generous country when it comes to recognising and resettling refugees. That in fact is untrue. When you look at the number of people that we recognised and resettled last year—less than half of one per cent—that made us 22nd by raw numbers in order of countries recognising and resettling refugees. When you look at this country's effort with refugees on a per capita basis, we are 27th in the world—not first or second. When you look at this country with regard to GDP, we are the 46th country in the world when it comes to the number of refugees we recognise and resettle. How on earth can we compare 14,350 refugees being recognised and resettled when last year Turkey recognised and resettled 1,027,137 refugees? How can we possibly compare ourselves to Lebanon, which last year recognised and resettled 364,129 refugees? How on earth can we compare ourselves to Afghanistan, which last year recognised and resettled 283,575 refugees? By comparison we recognised and resettled 14,350 refugees. Surely if there is one country that can do more—much more, and I do not mean an extra 5,000 over the next three years; I mean 30,000 this year—then it is our country. And our country will be all the richer for it, because among that 30,000 will be Syrian doctors, tradesmen, engineers, architects, nurses and social workers and any number of people who will undoubtedly add to this country's very rich multiculturalism. Standing orders must be suspended and we must deal with this matter urgently, because we have contributed to the problem in the Middle East. You cannot disentangle Iraq from Syria or Syria from Iraq. When we helped invade Iraq 12½ years ago, we helped create the instability which racks the region to this day. When we gave diplomatic support to the Syrian rebels, we effectively gave diplomatic support to Islamic State, which was one of the rebel groups. We now find ourselves in this ludicrous situation where we supported the rebels but we are now going to bomb them; we are now going to bomb the enemy of President Assad. The member for Melbourne gestured a little while ago, 'But what are we doing about President Assad?' We are now going to bomb his enemies and basically become a de facto ally of Russia. How dare we criticise the Russians for having a military presence in Syria assisting President Assad when we are going to be bombing President Assad's enemies. After the 2010 election when I was in negotiations with then Prime Minister Julia Gillard and then opposition leader Tony Abbott, the then opposition leader— A government member interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Denison must confine himself to why standing orders should be suspended. Mr WILKIE: Thank you, Speaker. Standing orders must be suspended because we must deal with this matter urgently. In fact, if we do deal with this matter urgently, perhaps the Prime Minister will find it in his heart today to again make the commitment that he made to me after the 2010 election that Australia would double its humanitarian intake, because we not only need to take a one-off large number of Syrians to do our share of the heavy lifting at this point in time; we also have to do a much greater share over years to come. There are 50 million people displaced and on the move at the moment around the world. We need to put in place a longer term solution. We need to be part of a longer term global solution. Surely that means doubling our humanitarian intake. If the then opposition leader could, after the 2010 election, bring himself to suggest that we double the humanitarian intake, surely the now Prime Minister can see it in his heart—and his government can see it in its heart—to do just that right now. There is an urgent need to suspend standing orders and to deal with this matter right now. There is possibly no more pressing issue facing this parliament right now than the crisis in Syria. We can hold our press conferences, we can put out our press releases and we can come in here and talk till the cows come home, but until this parliament and this government deals decisively with this issue then everything we have done so far is just talk. So the challenge now for the Prime Minister and for the government is to do something strong today and say yes, we will bring in 30,000 Syrians, and not one of them will come from the existing humanitarian intake, we will be part of a long-term global solution, we will be a good citizen, we will work with the community of nations, we will not leave it to Western Europe to shoulder this alone and we will double our humanitarian intake. I can but hope that, although the government saw fit not to give me leave to address this matter now, the government can now see it in its heart to have the debate now and to deal with this matter now, as it must be done. The SPEAKER: Is the motion seconded? Ms McGowan: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.