Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week I met with a delegation of dynamic young men and women from my electorate who were visiting Canberra to promote the Oaktree Foundation's Roadtrip to End Poverty. The road trip is an important initiative. It brings together 1,000 people aged 16 to 26, from every Australian state and territory, to travel around the country holding local community events and to spread the message as to how and why we must end global poverty.

With more than one billion people still living below the poverty line, and infant and child mortality rates still at an unacceptable high, we in Australia have an obligation to help the world's poor. I am proud of Australia's aid program, with our annual contribution now more than $5 billion, helping to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and educating many more. I acknowledge that there is also a bipartisan commitment to increase our aid levels from 0.35 per cent of GNI to 0.5 per cent of GNI.

I congratulate the Oaktree Foundation, Australia's largest youth volunteer organisation, which has over 100,000 members and its head office in my electorate. I look forward to working with Oaktree and its many young leaders like Caitlin Murphy, who has done so much to motivate the team as we work together towards the Millennium Development Goals and ending global poverty.

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