Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia must continue to assist with achieving the Millennium Development Goals and tackling global poverty. The Prime Minister, the Hon. John Howard, endorsed the Millennium Declaration at the Millennium Summit in 2000. In September last year he also attended the United Nations World Summit, where he endorsed world summit outcome documents. He also announced in 2005 that the overseas aid allocation would increase to $4 billion a year by 2010. I welcome this announcement which underlines the government’s commitment to poverty reduction, sustainable development and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Australia will meet the Millennium Development Goals by assisting developing nations through supporting health and education systems, promoting broad based economic growth and recognising the importance of the private sector and effective governance, democracy and anti-corruption measures. The World Bank estimates that corruption costs the world $1 trillion every year. However, any reform of corrupt systems must be led from within. There must be a will within the governments to make the necessary changes to remove corruption.

The MDGs emanated from the Millennium Declaration in 2005, which focused on poverty and hunger, education, gender equality, child and maternal mortality, and health and the environment. Achieving progress towards the MDGs is a complex challenge. Australia’s approach is to focus on promoting the conditions and building blocks necessary for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, as outlined in the Australian 2005 Millennium Development Goals progress report.

The main Millennium Development Goal, the first goal, is to eradicate extreme hunger by enabling the poor to access benefits and opportunities provided by economic growth—for example, in Cambodia, by improving the food security of the 212,000 established farming households under the Agricultural Quality Improvement Project. The NGO community also supports the Millennium Development Goals through the Make Poverty History campaign, which focuses on areas of aid, trade and debt relief to achieve progress towards the MDGs.

Aid alone will not be sufficient to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Trade liberalisation, backed up by supportive domestic policies and good governance, offers particularly significant benefits. This campaign in Australia is supported by a coalition of more than 50 aid agencies, community groups and religious organisations. The campaign focuses on the areas of aid, trade and debt relief to achieve the MDGs. In addition, there is the Micah Challenge, a worldwide church campaign launched on 25 October 2004. It involves a worldwide network of relief and advocacy groups consisting of three million churches and 267 groups in 111 nations.

The second Millennium Development Goal focuses on promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Australia’s response to the HIV-AIDS epidemic has targeted women and girls, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, as they represent an increasing proportion of people living with this disease. Also, countries that adopt specific measures to protect women’s rights and increase their access to health services, resources and schooling have less corruption and achieve faster economic growth than countries that do not. Placing value upon women will boost a nation’s economic, social and political strength.

Australia also recognises that violence can severely disadvantage women, which is why there is Australian aid funding for institutions such as the Women’s Crisis Centre in Fiji, which the government provided $1.7 million to this financial year. AusAID also supported empowering women’s decision making, especially in Tonga and the Solomon Islands. AusAID also supports Opportunity International in their empowerment of poor women through a microfinance project. This project operates in the Philippines, Indonesia and India. However, it is a continuing concern that of some 65 developing countries only half have achieved gender parity in primary education, about 20 per cent in secondary education and eight per cent in higher education. Parity in education is critical for women to engage fully in society and the global economy.

Looking at the sixth goal, continuing to combat HIV-AIDS, the pandemic shows no sign of abating. The spread of HIV-AIDS threatens people’s lives and regional stability and could reverse the gains in economic progress in many countries. The World Bank recently concluded that the future of global HIV-AIDS will be determined in Asia. While the focus has been on Africa, and that is important, it is as important that we place greater focus on our region, the Asia-Pacific region. Australia’s focus on the Asia-Pacific region will continue. For example, the government’s multi-year $600 million HIV-AIDS commitment directly addresses goals to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV-AIDS.

The Australian government is committed to doing all that it can to ensure that world poverty is halved by 2015, not only by providing aid financially but also, and as importantly, by assisting with good governance and economic integration. (Time expired)

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