Editorial: Help now a must

New Zealand needs to put its hand up to do its part, says Katie Holland. Photo / Jo Currie, World Vision

While New Zealand's attention has been focused on the design of our flag, on which towns a budget airline will fly to and who has made the All Blacks, a humanitarian crisis on an unimaginable scale has been unfolding on the other side of the world.

It's taken a shocking photo of a 3-year-old refugee's body washing up on a beach to grab widespread attention this week and up the pressure on governments around the world.

It's natural that Kiwis tend to focus more on what's happening in their own country. It is after all what affects our daily lives.

But the millions of refugees fleeing war-torn Syria is an issue New Zealand needs to care about.

Not just care about but act on.

Prime Minister John Key has said the Government is taking advice on whether New Zealand could take more refugees, or provide funding to support refugees in other countries.

Labour leader Andrew Little called on Mr Key to show "moral leadership" and increase New Zealand's refugee quota of 750 a year. That quota hasn't changed in 30 years.

Even if increased to 1000, it would still be a tiny drop in the ocean when faced with the millions desperately seeking safety.

But New Zealand needs to put its hand up to do its part, no matter how small or how symbolic. We can't stand by and just watch.

Just watch the confronting news reports of the dead children or the desperate parents who haven't eaten in days holding babies up above their heads in throbbing crowds as they are met not with the safe haven they risked their lives for but with barbed wire border fences and rows of riot police.

If we can help in any way, we must.