Leading Aussie businessman urges gov't to increase Syrian refugee intake

One of Australia's most prominent businessmen has called on the Australian government to almost triple its Syrian refugee intake, from 12,000 up to 30,000.

Tony Shepherd, a former head of the Business Council of Australia, made his dramatic call while visiting refugee camps in Turkey and Lebanon with an Australian business delegation.

"I think Australia and the rest of the developed world is going to have to step up to the plate and increase the number of resettled refugees they're preparing to take ... I hope we take 20-30,000," Shepherd told the ABC's Radio National program on Wednesday.

"Refugees have made an enormous contribution to Australia.

"I think it's within our economic and humane capacity to do it. We believe that business should enter the compact and offer the jobs and training that these people need."

Shepherd, who is currently chairman of Australian Football League club Greater Western Sydney Giants, has previously served on the government's National Commission of Audit and on the board of infrastructure company Transfield Services.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced in September last year that Australia would accept an additional 12,000 refugees affected by conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

That number has been dwarfed by European nations such as Germany, which plans to take up to 800,000 Syrian refugees.

Ian Smith, another member of the Australian business delegation travelling through Turkey and Lebanon, said there were many qualified professionals among the refugees.

"We've had the most remarkable and actually privileged insights to these people," Smith told 891 ABC Adelaide on Wednesday.

"Quite frankly they're just like all of us, there are many professional people, there are those who have been working in trades, there are those who are elderly, there are those who are young; just a broad cross-section of people who have been ravaged by devastation, by cruelty and (we are) really looking to how can we lend a hand to their rehabilitation one way or another." Enditem