The announcement on September 9 that Australia will accept only 12,000 refugees from Syria and that the government will seek to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity and religion is further proof that the government is lying about leading the world in welcoming refugees.
Immigration minister Peter Dutton announced on ABC radio that Australians would be “impressed by the generosity” of the government in response to the crisis. This is an insult to the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated their humanity and compassion towards the plight of Syrian and Kurdish refugees in vigils around the country on September 7.
In violation of international law, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on September 10 that Australia will join the US in aerial bombings of Syrian territory. The government, like the US, is defending this aggression as a “collective act of self defence”