Politics Live: September 9, 2015

Time for me to wrap up. What happened?

• Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Australia would take 12,000 refugees from Syria and northern Iraq in addition to the usual immigration intake;
• Mr Abbott also announced additional funding for the UNHCR;
• as well as air strikes on Daesh targets in Syria;
• the size of the refugee intake has been praised as significant and generous by the opposition, Greens and refugee groups; and
• the opposition supports the bomb strikes while the Greens do not.

My thanks to you for reading and participating throughout the day and to Alex Ellinghausen and Andrew Meares for their fine work.

We will return in the morning (Andrew will dial in from Papua New Guinea) and hope to catch you then.

Good night.

Mr Hockey stresses the importance of the China free trade agreement and reducing the budget deficit.

"We need quality growth through quality reform," Mr Hockey concludes.

Although there are challenges the Australian economy is entering its 25th year of continuous economic growth.

"The question is how can Australia continue to grow," Mr Hockey says.

Luckily, the government has a plan based on continuing to lower the tax burden on families and businesses.

Treasurer Joe Hockey is making a statement to the house about the economy.

Mr Hockey says the United States has indicated it will soon start lifting interest rates which indicates its economy is improving.

There are also positive signs in Great Britain and China remains strong, Mr Hockey says.

Treasurer Joe Hockey during question time on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Part of the government's Syria response is a bombing mission.

However Mr Abbott has not ruled out expanding the mission, as national security correspondent David Wroe writes.

Wherever you stand in the republican debate it's a significant achievement.

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, has demanded that people "be a little bit patient" with his country's failure to resettle refugees who were detained on Manus Island, predicting that some will be resettled well before the end of the year.

Mr O'Neill confirmed global warming would be one of the main topics of discussion on the forum's agenda.

Mr Abbott is about the leave Canberra for Port Moresby and the Pacific Islands Forum.

(This means Warren Truss will be the Acting Prime Minister.)

The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, has said that Australia may be asked to leave the Pacific Islands Forum, or face a walkout by small island states, if it attempted to water down a commitment to curb global warming at the meeting.

In relation to the 3.28 pm post.

You can follow the updates on the announcement on Syrian refugees in this story.

And I recommend spending the time reading this piece by The Age's national affairs editor Tony Wright.

"Those of a mind to do so may chafe at the knowledge that Australia is bombing Syria as it takes its 12,000 refugees from Europe, may debate how and why Mr Abbott came to change his mind about the number of refugees Australia will accept, and may recoil from the incongruity of a nation that grants asylum to some while imprisoning others on distant islands. We might ponder, too, what happens when even more refugees pour into Europe," Tony writes.

"But cynicism deserves a rest day concerning the Abbott government's decision to grant a permanent home to 12,000 desperate people. Having escaped Syria, they might have found no other."