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

I thank the House for the opportunity to address the issue of the UN Millennium Development Goals this afternoon. In speaking to this issue in the people’s house, the House of Representatives, I stand with many Australians and millions of people globally from almost 100 countries, both rich and poor, in standing up against poverty. Stand Up is just one event organised by Make Poverty History that seeks to raise the awareness of the need to urgently act to help the world’s poorest.

Earlier today, a collective of politicians, staff and the community stood up in front of Parliament House as part of this global event. That included the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. Stand Up is an event that has been largely led by young people, and they are to be commended for their empathy in wanting to help those most in need. Over 1.1 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion people live on less than $1 a day. As the gap between the world’s wealthy and poor continues to widen, it is more important than ever for us to face up to the issues of inequality both abroad and in our own backyards—for example, in our Indigenous communities—so as to try to do something practical to assist the less privileged in the global community.

Labor’s participation in Stand Up reflects our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. They are, clearly, goals worthy of implementation. They seek to halve extreme poverty, enable the provision of universal primary education and gender equality, reduce child mortality, AIDS and other diseases, and improve mental health and environmental sustainability—wonderful objectives for all of us to embrace.

I remind the House that it is just over one month before the Treasurer will host the G20 finance meeting in Melbourne. It is an opportunity for the world’s richest nations, such as Australia, to help come good on promises it and other developed countries like the United States and England made as part of the millennium goals. The government’s commitment to increase aid from the present 0.28 per cent of gross national income to 0.36 per cent by 2010, as outlined in the aid white paper, is a welcome, if overdue, initiative. But the opposition and many in the Australian community also believe it is not enough. We have to do more. In this month’s Make Poverty History second report on Australia’s performance under the Millennium Development Goals, a review has found that, yes, Australia has taken some significant steps towards more effective aid in the last 12 months. However, on a global level, more has to be done to increase our commitment internationally to realise the millennium goals. It is a start, but it is not enough. Obviously, our increased contribution is a positive step forward, but it is still considerably less than leading European donors in the OECD. The OECD predicts, for example, that if we do not increase our aid budget it will leave us 18th out of 22 donors in terms of our aid to gross national income ratio. These facts speak for themselves.

Where we want to be as a nation, and what is decent and proper, is leading us in this debate. It is about continuing Australia’s long-held spirit of mateship at home and a question of a fair go abroad. Therefore, the question is: does the spirit of equality stop at our shores? I argue that it does not. Britain, France and Spain are all increasing their aid contribution to 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2010, while Denmark, Sweden and Norway have all either equalled or exceeded the target. That is what leadership is about and that is where Australia should aspire to be.

In hosting the G20 finance meeting on 18 and 19 November, the Treasurer has a unique opportunity to show leadership in ensuring the G20 move forward on the debate on debt relief. That would be real leadership we could all be proud of as Australians. Real leadership would say to the global community that we care about doing something practical. It would demonstrate that we are about achieving our fair share of aid relief in the 2007-08 budget by continuing Australian momentum with a repeat of this year’s increase. Wouldn’t that be a great announcement for the Treasurer to make in the lead-up to the G20 meeting? I challenge the Treasurer to give serious consideration to that proposition in cabinet deliberations.

If we can actually do something on that front, then we can do more, as we all want to do something about halving poverty, overcoming the problems of a lack of education and gender in equality, reducing child mortality, AIDS and other diseases, and improving mental health—all objectives, including environmental sustainability, that we can make progress on at home and internationally. It is about doing something about our aspirations as a nation—a promise by rich nations such as Australia to the world’s poor that we actually understand and appreciate their problems and can do something better to help them. (Time expired)

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