Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too would like to congratulate the member for Parramatta for bringing such an important motion to the House to highlight this very important issue that affects many poor nations around the world. As the motion identifies, 12 to 18 October has been declared Anti-Poverty Week, with this Friday 17 October being International Anti-Poverty Day. I would doubt that anyone truly disbelieves the merits of relatively wealthy nations such as Australia contributing to the development of poorer nations and the rise in living standards of their populations. Ongoing commentary and analysis of collective progress towards the UN’s Millennium Development Goals reminds us of the impoverished circumstances and lives of so many hundreds of millions of our fellow human beings around the world—circumstances that have persisted for generations, but circumstances in which current generations look to a brighter future as a result, in part, of the efforts and support of wealthier countries.

A few recent reports indicate that the proportion of people living on less than US$1.25 per day has decreased from 29 per cent of the world’s population in 1990 to 18 per cent in 2004, and it is expected to decrease to 12 per cent by 2015. The number of children dying from preventable diseases around the world has decreased by half, to 30,000 per day—that is a 50 per cent drop, albeit over 20 years. Now we are experiencing 30,000 deaths per day, virtually a million per month, which is over 10 million per year. Two million more people are being treated for AIDS, while two million more people are infected every year. Forty-one million extra children are going to school. While some nations continue to make progress towards meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, some nations face the prospect of not meeting any.

Academics fear that the recent world food shortages and oil spike may have wiped out recent gains in many, many countries. In particular, in our neighbourhood, Papua New Guinea is at risk of not reaching one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. A recent report highlights their disadvantage. Fifty per cent are under a basic-needs poverty line; 46 per cent of children do not complete primary school; child mortality is at 74 deaths per thousand; maternal mortality is at 470 out of 100,000; and 475 people per 100,000 contract TB. As such an important and close neighbour, Papua New Guinea’s predicament must call Australia to intensified action. The government has of course committed to increasing the share of Australia’s wealth dedicated towards international development. No doubt the systems that need to be put in place to channel these increasing funds towards real and measurable outcomes need time to develop. We must of course make sure that our action is effective and that development assistance achieves the outcomes for which we all strive.

Australia’s historical government aid may not be the most effective means of achieving shared Millennium Development Goals, Australia’s government aid might not even be the most useful in every context, but there is enormous collective will focused on the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals throughout the Australian community and overseas populations. We are blessed with a well-educated population and a highly skilled private sector. We have a population that will stand up for what is decent and right. I believe that a tremendous opportunity exists for the Australian population itself to contribute to the alleviation of overwhelming poverty in our very own region.

I support of course our government’s increase in government aid, the increase in the focus of our aid and the attempt to improve the results of our aid, but I especially wish to congratulate the Australian public for its lack of acceptance of world poverty and its continuing attempts to highlight the acute and unnecessary levels of disadvantage, disease and death in so many nation states around the world, including in our very own backyard. I wish to give all the encouragement I can to those people, whether they are community volunteers, as we saw here on the parliament lawns today, church groups or the more altruistic within the private sector, who continue in their efforts to make our world a better place for the bottom billion-odd people around the world today and the billions and billions of our fellow human beings who we hope will not be born into poverty in the decades ahead. I commend the motion to members of the House.

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