Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Macquarie is to be congratulated on continuing to bring this issue into the House, and I note that he moved a motion in similar terms in 2005. It comes at a particularly important time in the ongoing debate and growing campaign for the relief of debt for Third World countries and, naturally, for the encouragement that is necessary for the world community to make poverty history. This week, 15-21 October, is Anti-Poverty Week, and International Anti-Poverty Day is on 17 October. Today, outside Parliament House, I and other Australians, including the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, gathered to record our support for tackling poverty with a world record attempt for standing up; Stand Up is a campaign to send a clear message to world leaders that we must take a stand against poverty, and it was a message that members on all sides of the House wanted to send through to leadership here.

Whilst it is true that the federal government has identified the need and, as the Chief Government Whip has said, has offered a modest increase in the aid budget this year, it is a fact that Australia still rates poorly when compared to other developed countries. That is a challenge for the Howard government. If it is fair dinkum about aid, it must lift its proportion of aid in relation to other equivalent countries in order to give the terms of this motion some effect. We still sit about 18th or 19th in aid expenditure and, whilst it is recognised that the debt forgiveness packages that the member for Macquarie referred to are welcome, a number of the amounts in relation to the debt forgiveness packages have gone towards the campaign in Iraq and that has inflated Australia’s overall commitment.

The Millennium Development Goals advocate a halving of global poverty by 2015. But currently the federal government’s commitment in the aid budget of only 0.35 per cent of GNI by 2010 means that we will fall short of this goal. Indeed, a report issued on 14 August of this year by World Vision, How are the neighbours, showed that nearly six years on from the commitment to the Millennium Development Goals a number of countries in the region are struggling and at least eight countries, including Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, Timor Leste and Laos, are significantly off track. Of some criticality, goal 4 of the Millennium Development Goals, reducing infant mortality, stands out as being a goal which a number of nations have been unable to reach. It is very clear that, for low-income countries in particular, aid remains an important determiner of service provision and, notwithstanding issues that relate to governance or debt levels—and they are important issues—providing additional significant investment and support for people in low-income countries, particularly in terms of reducing infant mortality, is absolutely critical.

I have raised previously in the House the government’s failure to properly commit to microcredit. Microcredit means small business loans which can be used to help start or expand small businesses. Only 0.6 per cent of Australia’s aid budget is for microcredit programs. Compare that to the United States, where the figure is closer to 1.25 per cent. I do urge the government to consider increasing its commitment to microcredit. Last week one of the founding fathers of microcredit, Professor Muhammad Yunus, and the bank he set up, the Grameen Bank, were honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘their efforts to create economic and social development from below’. It is absolutely critical that we provide additional assistance to those efforts.

Finally, in order to be serious about poverty we also need to be serious about climate change. Climate change and development, particularly as we go forward, are critical. Unless we not only address climate change and seriously tackle poverty in the region in tandem with assisting people but also have rigorous policy from the national government here in Australia to address climate change, then rates of infectious diseases, increases in the incidence of extreme weather events and temperature increases in the region will affect our neighbours there.

Labor have a response to the government’s aid white paper. We call for a legislative charter for Australia’s development assistance. We identify the need for a global development institute, separate to AusAID, to improve transparency, and we seek a Pacific development trust which would facilitate microcredit loans. Incremental increases in aid, which the government has made, are acknowledged, but for the government to be really serious about making poverty history it will have to make substantial commitments in policy, funding and approach, and that is what we urge with this motion.

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