Kay Elson (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to support the motion by the member for Riverina and to be part of a government that is actively working to ensure our overseas aid program does focus on the things that really matter. The simple fact is that, unless we continue to demand more of the governments in the countries whose citizens we are seeking to help, we cannot expect long-term solutions to their problems. What is more, I firmly believe we have a right to demand more and to speak out against practices that we know are wrong.

There are some in this House who think that aid and assistance should be unconditional—that the purpose of helping is simply to feed the hungry and to provide housing and the other basics that their governments have failed to deliver—and that we should not be involved in the politics of any particular nations. There are people who feel we have no right to impose on another culture our values, our beliefs, our legal system and our sense of fairness. To a point, that argument has some merit, but, when cultural sensitivity is used as an excuse to turn a blind eye to blatant injustice, it is just not on. It is also common sense that, by promoting good governance and working to eliminate injustice and corruption, we can vastly improve the situation of many impoverished nations.

It is a sad fact that gender based discrimination is one of the injustices that we see occurring in many impoverished nations. For example, I saw on the news just this weekend that the UN has released a report that finds the number of so-called honour killings of women in Pakistan has more than doubled in the past year. This is surely evidence of the need for all nations to put more pressure on the Pakistani government to ensure equal rights for women and, in particular, equal access to the justice system.

Unfortunately, some of these barbaric practices against women—honour killing being an example—are culturally based. I believe that in the modern world there can be no place for this kind of culture. Adherence to these primitive and barbaric rituals should not be tolerated by any person or any nation. Of course, honour killings are an extreme example of discrimination, but many other forms of gender inequality are often entrenched in the laws, policies and systems of developing countries.

In the developing nations to which we give aid, men, women and children all suffer, but, in many instances, women and children are much worse off than men are. When I travelled to Africa as part of a parliamentary delegation to examine our overseas aid programs in Mozambique and Kenya, I saw firsthand the benefits of Australian aid, particularly for the women and children in those countries. Until you witness firsthand the massive difference that the Australian government is making to the lives of women and children, you cannot really judge whether we give enough money or not. Australia gave $42,000 to put bores in remote communities. I opened a bore where previously the women and children had to go down to the river to get water—the men did not get the water because of the danger of being eaten by crocodiles. That was $42,000 well spent by the Australian government.

In those countries, our aid has a very strong education focus—education being the key to eradicating poverty and also, hopefully, to addressing injustice and gender discrimination. We have a successful ‘school for food’ program, in which we encourage young children to access education, and a tremendous ‘work for food’ program, which helps women to develop work projects that can sustain them in the future. I saw firsthand a project which, for the first time in the women’s lives, gave them control of the money coming into their family and gave their children a better chance at life.

Giving women access to some degree of economic freedom is the first step in giving them access to a greater level of participation in communities and in politics. It is very interesting to note that, by helping women to have equal rights, status and participation in the political process, we can also reduce corruption and poverty overall. Research by the World Bank has found that, where the influence of women in public life is greater, the overall level of corruption is lower. When women and men are relatively equal, economies tend to grow faster and the poor move out of poverty more quickly.

As I said at the outset, by addressing gender inequality we can do much to address the overall problems faced by developing countries. I am very pleased to support this motion today, to note the contribution of the Australian aid program and to thank all of those people who work overseas to deliver our programs.

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