Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources, Forestry and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, this evening I will talk about the UN Millenium Development Goals. In doing so I note that Australia this year will host the G20 gathering of finance ministers in Melbourne in the very near future. This group was established in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis to bring together industrialised economies and emerging economies to discuss the global economy. Debt and poverty reduction are among key issues that are part of this ongoing dialogue. Given this, it is timely to raise with this House the importance of the 2015 millennium goals. These goals include: halving extreme poverty; universal primary education; gender equality; the reduction of child mortality, AIDS and other diseases; improved maternal health; and environmental sustainability. I believe these goals must be recognised as more than an aspiration. They are a promise from rich nations such as Australia to the poor.

With increasing wealth worldwide but growing inequality, it is more important than ever for parliamentarians across the world to confront these issues both in our own backyards—and, unfortunately, in our own Indigenous communities—and across borders. These international goals mirror aspirations we have for our community, particularly the Aboriginal communities that currently live in Third World conditions. I welcome the Leader of the Opposition’s undertaking just a week ago that as Prime Minister of Australia he would do something about Aboriginal health.

To push the achievement of these goals the Make Poverty History campaign was launched across the world in 2005. It has had widespread impact in raising awareness of the need for poverty reduction. Next door to my electorate of Batman, VCE student Mervin Ng, from Parade College in Bundoora, took his own initiative recently in support of this campaign. I commend his leadership. He collected 1,500 signatures from students and staff on a 13-metre banner which was recently tabled by my colleague, the Member for Scullin, Harry Jenkins. Thankfully, as witnessed by these actions, the next generation of Australians has a rising awareness of increasing inequality, and they are to be commended.

The attainment of these goals would have a dramatic impact on poverty reduction, and it is well within the power of the leadership in Australia to grasp this opportunity. To halve poverty in less than 10 years, signatories are obliged to increase their aid budgets. While increases under the aid white paper are welcome—from the present 0.28 per cent of gross national income to 0.36 per cent by 2010—the Labor Party believes Australia’s contribution can be greater. Britain, France, Spain and Ireland have increased their aid commitments to 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2010. Of the 22 OECD donor nations, five already equal or exceed the 0.7 per cent target—namely, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Six others have indicated they will reach the 0.7 per cent target in the next few years. They are Belgium, Finland, Spain, France, the UK and Germany. That is what leadership is about.

In addition, the EU has recently committed to collectively reaching a target of 0.56 per cent of GNI by 2010 and 0.7 per cent by 2015. I say therefore to the Australian community at large that as a nation we can, and should, increase our target. It is our joint responsibility, our collective responsibility. As the 2005 United Nations report into the millennium goals stated:

... we have the means at hand to ensure that nearly every country can make good on the promises of the Goals.

Australia can also, therefore, make a contribution to this campaign by ensuring that debt forgiveness does not retract from the all-important aid programs in health and education. We can also take a leadership role, as we did with the Cairns Group, to push for the removal of agricultural subsidies through the World Trade Organisation. As we head towards these critical deadlines, we need a greater commitment to move beyond political rhetoric and make these goals a reality.

I simply say in conclusion: where there is a will, there is a capacity to actually do something. That is the challenge to the Howard government and the leadership role it adopts in hosting the G20 gathering of finance ministers in Melbourne this year. Would it not be wonderful in the lead-up to that conference if we made an announcement as a nation that we were going to up our contribution and do something of substance in our own backyard and internationally for the general good of all people on this earth? I commend the Millennium Development Goals to the Australian community.

See this speech in context