Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Franklin for moving this motion. He and I were here the day that the current Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, came to this place 10 or more years ago. None of the other members contributing to today’s debate have been in this place so long as to be able to make that claim. Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank and the work of microcredit have been very familiar to the member for Franklin and me. Apart from my five-and-a-bit-year sojourn in the ministry, I have been very passionate about advocating for this. I know that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, listened very closely to a number of us in the mid to late nineties when we went to see him about microcredit and said, ‘You’ve got to look at this way of making relatively small lumps of money available to those who are responsible and capable of doing something with it.’ That is what microcredit schemes have been about. The member for Chisholm outlined some examples of the way in which women, in particular, have been targeted in very poor countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and various parts of Africa—the list is very impressive.

The government’s commitment to microcredit, whilst seemingly a small amount of money, has to be seen in the overall context of a decade of involvement in microcredit schemes. We have to look at the other things which should underpin the capacity to get a result out of microcredit and we have to make sure we have the building blocks that are needed to make it fully effective: macroeconomic stability; appropriate financial and legal systems; key infrastructure, such as roads and electricity; and health services.

I am greatly in debt to a bloke called Mark Rice, who has the job of research and advocacy coordinator for RESULTS Australia. He is a constituent of mine. I listen to my constituents and he put me onto this on virtually day one after I was elected in 1996. Mark’s claims are fair and reasonable. His challenge to the government is not just about doubling the amount of microcredit money that is available but also about looking at the growing burden of HIV-AIDS, TB and malaria in the South Pacific. Forty per cent of all new HIV infections by 2010 will be in that region, with an emerging epidemic in PNG. Indonesia now has half a million new TB cases and 100,000 deaths annually. I see that my colleague the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship is talking about a total ban on people with TB. He is talking about not bringing them into this country because of the Auditor-General’s report into some of the processes of the immigration department. We need to be very careful about those so-called total bans because, whilst we want our migrants to meet the health criteria, we also need to note that there are those who are going to come to this country and be able to be very productive despite exposure to those things. 1.9 million people are infected with malaria in Indonesia.

These sorts of building blocks are very important components in making sure that microcredit works well. I support the call from RESULTS Australia for a global fund to help fight AIDS, TB and malaria. They have already spent an enormous amount of money—not so much through RESULTS, but through a number of agencies. Some $8.8 billion in public and private moneys have been disbursed and monitored since 2002. But there needs to be a significant Asia-Pacific focus in these things. That way our microcredit contribution can find people with the health and also the focus to participate in these sorts of society-growing programs. If your main concern is the health of your kids and whether you are going to see the week out, microcredit is not for you, so it is absolutely important that we have those building blocks in place.

We also need to note that the results of the efforts in regard to this disease control has seen half a million people on antiretroviral treatments, TB treatments for 1.4 million people and bed nets delivered to more than 11.3 million people to prevent malaria. This sort of work in concert with the targeted work of microcredit schemes is going to make a difference and liberate our region. I believe very strongly that Australia has a long-term role to play in growing the educative and work readiness capacity of so many nations in our region. These are words I uttered when I was the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education; I am not going to walk away from them now. We have to make certain that people have the capacity to have that economic role in the region. Education, training, health and microcredit are all part of the way in which you build a strong and secure local region that Australia is a part of. Australia should not shut its doors and turn its way inwards; it should be part of that region in every possible way. (Time expired)

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