Millions of Syrians have no home or nation. We could take many more, and bolster the vital work of the UNHCR.
Sitting in a cold and draughty tent, one of many that make up an informal settlement outside of Beirut, I am struck by the power of human resilience. The couple we are visiting have two young girls and a nine-month-old baby. There is not enough room for both girls beside their one small heater, so they must take turns. Tonight you can feel the cracks in the makeshift walls, and the coming nights will be colder still. Yet in the face of despair, the couple talk of their love for one another and how that will get them through. A good marriage, the man tells me, is all a man needs.
On   January 20 I led a business delegation to Turkey and Lebanon to witness the unfolding humanitarian crisis under the auspices of the Friendly Nation Initiative. I am told it is the first time the Australian business community has set foot in a refugee camp since the end of World War II. We spent seven days visiting the so-called formal and informal camps. 
After a week of intensive briefings from the remarkable people at the UNHCR (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), the complexity of the issues starts to hit home. A single visit makes you no expert, but it certainly brings to light the painfully obvious: Australia can and should do more.
The Friendly Nation Initiative was established and is run by Carla Wilshire, the redoubtable CEO of the Migration Council Australia. I chair the initiative. It was formed to encourage business to offer jobs and training to the Syrian refugees.
Our mission comprised Innes Willox, CEO of the Australian Industry Group, John Denton, managing partner of Corrs Chambers Westgarth and BCA representative, Ian Smith, principal of Bespoke Partners, and Michael Dwyer, CEO of First State Super, one of Australia's largest pension funds. We were guided by Wilshire, and Catherine Stubberfield, from UNHCR's Australia office, who possesses that dauntless combination of both rigour and sensitivity so important to humanitarianship.
Our reality check came from the outstanding Andrew O'Keefe and cameraman Billie Newton of Channel Seven's Sunrise program. These guys have seen everything but retained their humanity and sense of balance. They are a credit to their craft.
What did we see and hear? Turkey has over 1 million refugees living in camps and in the community. Lebanon, with a population of 4 million, has an additional 1.3 million refugees from Syria and Iraq, living wherever room can be found. This in a country still recovering from a devastating civil war, much of its own population remains below the poverty line.
The charity from Lebanon and Turkey is remarkable. We were awestruck by the quality of the care in the camps in Turkey. However, as we talk to the families, the stasis of camp life becomes evident. Keeping hundreds of thousands of people in camps cannot continue indefinitely.
The 4.6 million refugees from Syria and Iraq have fled for their lives. They have nothing. They leave behind homes, businesses, farms and jobs. They leave behind family and friends - both living and buried. Every family we talk to wants only one thing: to return to their previous life in Syria. Yet to be blunt, this is not going to happen - at least not in any foreseeable future. There is no peace across the border and a sustainable peace agreement will not come easily. Even then, security will be difficult and infrastructure must be rebuilt. In the meantime, wreckage of millions of lives remains scattered and adrift.
Turkey has responded with great humanity to this crisis by admitting over one million refugees. It is not a wealthy country and cannot possibly cope on its own. Attempting to suddenly sustain over one million new people who do not speak their language seems near-impossible.
Lebanon has opened its schools to Syrian students, but because of its own difficulties has work restrictions and has registration fees on refugees too poor to pay for basic food items.
The UNHCR is valiantly trying to plug the gaps, to keep an increasingly desperate and hopeless population from moving on. However, they too have reached the limit of their financial resources. There are no simple answers. All we can do is do what we can do. Australia has taken a lead on resettlement and was praised for this during our visit. The UNHCR estimates there remain some 460,000 refugees in desperate need of resettlement over the next two years. The international community has committed to offering only 160,000 places. The shortfall needs to be filled. To remain homeless, nationless, indefinitely, is little more than a sentence of a slow death, a silent execution by indifference.
It is the quality of business to foresee opportunity, and in this moment Australia faces a unique opportunity for leadership. Australia can and should use its good offices to encourage the developed world to increase the commitment by 300,000 while we increase our intake to 25,000. It is our fair share.
Turkey and Lebanon cannot afford to support the refugees in their country and provide all the needed jobs and basic services. They require financial and other assistance with things like infrastructure. An infrastructure investment program can provide both services and job opportunities to the refugees, and a legacy when the crisis eventually subsides.
In the countries we visited, UNHCR is doing a remarkable job, providing protection, delivering food rations, funding schooling and healthcare projects and building support networks. But they do not have the resources they need to divert such an outpouring of humanity. They must be fully resourced to do the job - they are the only thing standing between a crisis and a catastrophe.
Back home in Australia, business can take a leadership role by committing to provide jobs and training plus other forms of support to the refugees we take in. And while we accommodate more, it should not be simply a one-way gift: it should be with the goal of enabling refugees to fully participate and in turn give back. In fact, it is already happening. As a sign of growing momentum, support for the Friendly Nation Initiative has been very encouraging, having already received commitments from companies such as Kmart, Woolworths and Harvey Norman.
As I stare out the window on the plane ride home, I think that if history has taught us nothing else, it is that generosity is always rewarded. Our nation Australia was built by migration; it has been the secret to our success. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the nations that chose to open their hearts and invest in new people, over the decades to follow came to dominate diplomacy and lead in the global economy.