Nope. Nope. Nope.

Tony Abbott yesterday when questioned on whether Australia will consider settling any of the asylum seekers from the South East Asia humanitarian crisis.

Abbott’s churlish remarks do not reflect mine, or many other Australians’ views on migration and refugee policy.

As thousands of asylum seekers remain trapped on board decrepit vessels somewhere between statelessness and the unknown, many Australians will be feeling an overwhelming sense of helplessness and a growing desire for our leaders to act.

Australia has a long history of welcoming refugees from across the world.

Since World War II, we have resettled more than 645,000 refugees and displaced people.

Australia remains one of only 10 countries which resettle refugees and people in humanitarian need each year and for the past two years, has offered the world’s second highest number of places, after the United States, for the resettlement of refugees.

The majority of new arrivals are quick to call Australian home.

‘Building a New Life in Australia’, the first large-scale study in a decade involving 2,400 immigrants across Australia, found three-quarters of humanitarian migrants felt they had been made welcome in Australia. The findings present a positive picture of life in Australia for humanitarian migrants including those from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

But, while thousands of newly arrived migrants are granted visas and given an opportunity to begin a new life here in Australia, thousands more are left languishing in refugee camps or remain stranded at sea.

The push factors are intense. Unemployment, high crime rates, poverty, malnutrition, genocide, persecution. The pull factor is simple. Freedom.

In 2013, there were 1.2 million new asylum applications worldwide. In 2015, the number is expected to increase by more than 15 per cent.

Current policies, both here and around the world, no longer provide protection for the sizeable proportion of people in need. Instead, it is increasingly a matter of who can pay, and one of its greatest beneficiaries is the people smuggling industry.

Some analysts estimate that along the Mediterranean Sea route alone, smugglers extracted up to $US1 billion from migrants throughout 2014.

In Australia, asylum applications have increased significantly over the last decade. In 2013, there were between 3,000 and 4,000 maritime arrivals each month, many of whom were the victims of people smuggling.

Despite Tony Abbott’s recent hails of success, Dr Khalid Koser asserts that the Government’s current policies of “stop the boats” and “stop the people smugglers” can hardly be considered a success. It consumes significant resources, has poisoned bilateral and regional alliances, sullied Australia’s standing in the global community, and it has offended the majority of Australians with its overtly inhumane approach.

He argues that Australia should be at the forefront of a total reform of the current international framework for refugees and humanitarian needs. The most powerful reason for Australia to initiate reform? It will result in a more effective asylum policy here and around the world.

In this sense, Koser points out that no other country is impacted more directly by the consequences of the stumbling international protection system. Most analysts agree that being one of the few signatories to the 1951 Convention on Refugees in the region, combined of course with our wealth and living standards, places us in a reasonable position to shape a system that our neighbours would be willing and able to endorse and implement.

And while migration reform is often seen as political suicide, especially in the pre-election cycle, in contrast to most European countries, recent polls suggest that the Australian Government would receive strong domestic support for leading a reform agenda. There is impetus to change, to reform, to rebuild a system that is broken.

The current system is not working. The recent tragedies in the North Africa, Mediterranean and East Asian region reflect a growing disparity between developed and developing nations, between strong economies and desperate economies, between freedom and despair. And these large scale humanitarian crises will continue unless the global community can come together and begin to reform an outdated and inefficient system.

The people smuggling cartels are growing ever more powerful, casting their nets deeper into the chasms of despair, capturing the most vulnerable, and trading innocent lives for profits.

We have an obligation to stop their trade.

We have an obligation to protect human lives.

And we have an obligation to provide the next generations with a sustainable and efficient migration system that provides for the most vulnerable and reflects our common goals of humanity, decency and freedom.

It is unlikely that the current Australian Government will explore any option to amend its hard-line stance on migration.

Perhaps the Labor Opposition will take this opportunity to develop a strong, measured, humanitarian framework to migration policy and help lead the international community towards a new world approach.

Because a little less “nope, nope, nope” would go a long way to a better future for all of us, but most of all, for our most vulnerable global citizens.