Q+A

Drowning in Desperation to Dying with Dignity (2015x32)

: 07, 2015

Discuss the Questions Here are the questions our panel faced this week. Tell us what your answer would be or what you think our panellists need to say. REFUGEE INTAKE Marcus Rigg asked: Mike Baird, you said last week: "We cannot see the images we have seen, and feel the things we have felt, and then go back to business as usual." And yet, it seems it is still business as usual with Tony Abbott refusing to increase the overall yearly intake of refugees. While I applaud any effort to help the Syrian people, when will Tony Abbott face the fact that whether we like it or not Australia is going to have to play a more active role in this global humanitarian crisis? REFUGEE QUEUE Nilesh Nandan asked: Are some refugees more equal than others? I don’t see the point of a reallocation within an existing quota, if the total quota itself is not increased. What do we say to refugees from the other regions, currently in the queue, who have had their place put back? BOMBING SYRIA Narelle Clark asked: My question is for Chris Bowen. Politics reached a new low when the ALP and Greens accused the PM of considering sending the Australian Airforce into Syria to improve his polling numbers. What solution does the ALP have for the refugee crisis if it does not include making Syria safe for the Syrians? POLITICS IS A CIRCUS Sheila Dhillon asked: Catherine Livingstone, when my grandfather first visited Australia from Singapore in 1996, I took him for a live sitting at Parliament House. After 20 minutes, he looked at me and whispered, "Are you sure you want to call this your home? This country looks like it is being run by a bunch of monkeys in a circus?" 20 years on, I have not sought an Australian citizenship. Not because I don't love this beautiful country, but simply because it would be a waste of a vote either way. As the leading industry body propagating economic and social progress in the national interest of this country, what is your biggest challenge with our political lands