Remember the date - that's the exact moment it became embarrassing to be Australian.

It marks the moment the Coalition introduced legislation into Parliament that increases Australia's tolerance for torture and murder.

Five days beforehand, a United Nations report revealed there were more than 50 million displaced people worldwide.

Our response?

We increased the likelihood of returning people to places where there's a very real risk they'll be done for.

In an era of aspirational bill names, the unremarkably titled Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures) Bill 2014 was a dead giveaway.

After a read, it could have just as easily been called Heart of Darkness.

The most troubling aspect is the requirement that people seeking protection within our borders must show they have minimum 51 per chance of being significantly harmed if returned home.

Significant harm is defined as death, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

In other words, a 50 per cent chance of having jumper leads attached to your genitals, or getting raped or even murdered if we return you home, does not stop us doing so.

In legal circles, such a burden of proof is called the balance of probabilities.

In humanitarian terms, it's just plain cruel. Torture and persecution should not be met with odds worse than a coin toss.

The United Nations calls returning people to a dangerous home a process of refoulement and it's prohibited under the conventions Australia has signed.

I was recently told a good column explores counter- arguments, but for the life of me I can't find one in this.

The government has a right to manage its borders.

But after no boat arrivals in six months, where is the rationale in lowering the country's moral compass to a notch above the Idi Amins of the world?

What's embarrassing for the government and us is the UN report showing there are more displaced people now than at any time since World War II.

The report blows away the fantasy perpetrated by this government, and the last three or four, that fleeing wars, persecution and general hellholes can ever be a measured, controlled and orderly process.

Australia's current policy is to accept only refugees settled under the remit of the UN Refugee Agency.

According to the report, that's less than 4 per cent of all recognised refugees.

Australia, for all its rhetoric about lifters, not leaners, hosts just 0.3 per cent of the 11.7 million refugees under the UN Agency mandate.

More than 85 per cent of refugees are instead hosted in some of the poorest places on Earth - countries like Pakistan, Ethiopia, Iraq and other developing nations.

Yes, Australia's resettlement program was ranked second in the world in 2013 but that's for a very small portion of the overall pool of people seeking protection.

To the other 96 per cent of asylum seekers, one of the world's richest countries shuts its borders.

When measured against Australia's wealth, our contribution of taking refugees is 74 out of 187 countries.

Australia should be shouldering more of the burden, not finding ways to fudge it.