Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'm speaking in support of this bill, the Official Development Assistance Multilateral Replenishment Obligations (Special Appropriation) Bill 2019, because Australian aid saves lives. As a former Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, I've seen firsthand what a difference the Australian aid budget can make to the lives of some of the poorest people in the world living within our region.

Australia is a wealthy nation. We're fortunate to enjoy relative high living standards, and we have a moral obligation to support economic development and growth and improved living standards in the region in which we live. The Pacific region, in which Australia is situated, has some of the poorest people and nations in the world when it comes to global development goals and economic indicators—nations in which people die from preventable diseases like diarrhoea; nations in which rates of infant mortality are shockingly high; nations in which rates of attainment of primary school and high school education are very low; nations in which rates of domestic violence and violence against women are shockingly high. Added to those problems is the compounding influence of climate change on Pacific nations—particularly nations like Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, where governments are actively considering moving populations to other areas because their island nations are simply becoming uninhabitable. When you look at Australia's position in our region in that context, it's very important that bills like this are supported and that Labor and the government remain supporters of a workable Australian aid budget.

This bill provides a special appropriation for the Australian government to meet its commitments to replenish a range of multinational development funds over coming years. Those multilateral funds carry out essential work in tackling poverty and promoting economic growth and sustainable development in some of the world's poorest countries. The funds also help tackle environmental challenges which require global operation. Australia has played an active role over many years in supporting these funds, and our support for these funds is part of the government's commitment to being a good international citizen.

Australian overseas aid is not only the right thing to do but also in Australia's interests. It provides for Australia's foreign relationships, our economic prosperity and our national security by fostering more prosperous, stable and secure international environments. It is positive for our own economy, boosting jobs and living standards at home by encouraging growth abroad, which creates new export markets for Australian products. The classic example of this is the fact that Australia, in the past, has provided aid through various multilateral funds to China, to Korea and to nations like Singapore, which, as a result of that international aid, have lifted literally billions of people out of poverty. That aid improved living standards but also improved the productivity and effectiveness of those economies, and those economies—most notably China—are now important trading partners for Australia. China is of course Australia's largest trading partner, providing huge economic benefits to Australians in the form of increasing growth, productivity and jobs for Australians. So overseas aid not only improves the living standards of people in those countries that we provide it to, but also will return a dividend to the Australian economy in the future through increasing trade.

Overseas aid also reduces the risk of cross-border problems, like health epidemics, political instability and transnational crime affecting Australia. That's why Labor's been a strong supporter and always advocated for a strong international development program for this country. We're also a strong supporter of an international rules based system and the multinational institutions which are at the heart of this system. Supporting international development is in Australia's interests and helping developing countries to grow will promote Australia's interests in a prosperous, stable and secure region.

Growth in developing countries will create new trade and investment opportunities for Australia. It will not only help lift people in developing countries out of poverty but will also support jobs in Australia. Tackling poverty in developing countries is also in Australia's interests because it means a more stable and secure international environment. Poverty and social inequities can generate instability, insecurity and tension in the international environment. By reducing economic disadvantage, we're tackling the root causes of instability and insecurity. This will not only improve the welfare of people in developing countries but also improve our own security in what can be an increasingly unstable region. Supporting international development is squarely in Australia's interests. We're a country that's committed to the fair go and helping vulnerable and disadvantaged people both at home and abroad. Our international development programs and our participation in multinational development institutions are an expression of our values as Australians—particularly the value of the fair go. That's why I and my Labor colleagues are supporting the bill.

Through this bill the parliament will provide the executive government with a special appropriation from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purposes of meeting Australia's commitments to a range of multilateral development funds. The funds covered by this special appropriation are the International Development Association, which is the World Bank's development arm and one of the world's main sources of mulitlateral official developmental assistance; the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, debt relief arrangements administered by the International Development Association which have relieved 36 of the world's poorest countries of about $99 billion worth of debt; the Asian Development Fund, which provides development grants to low-income members of the Asian Development Bank; the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund, which is administered by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to support the sustainable development of activities around the world; and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which provides funds to help developing countries to phase out the use of substances which deplete the earth's ozone layer. Australia supported these multilateral development funds for many years on a bipartisan basis. Our commitment to the World Bank goes back to the international financial architecture which was adopted in the aftermath of the Second World War by the Chifley government in its 1947 decision for Australia to join the Bretton Woods initiative. Australia was one of the first countries to ratify the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer under Hawke government in 1987, and the Howard government committed Australia to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative in 2005.

Australia's funding commitments to these institutions are typically refreshed every three to four years in replenishment pledges. The replenishment pledge can commit Australia to provide funding support for several years to come. In the case of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, Australia's agreed to make an annual funding contribution to 2044, and that's why it's appropriate for parliament to make a special appropriation to support these commitments. An ongoing special appropriation will better reflect the multilateral and multiyear time frames of Australia's commitments to these funds and annual appropriations.

Labor supports the passage of this bill. However, I do wish to take this opportunity to express concern about the government's approach to international aid and in particular their continued cuts to the Australian aid budget. It's a concern that we've had for many years, since the government were elected. We have a concern also with the Prime Minister's role and his comments that undermine Australia's role in multilateral institutions.

Since this government came to office in 2013, they've cut $11.8 billion from Australia's aid budget. Australia's aid contribution is at the lowest level as a proportion of gross national income that it has ever been in our nation's history. And official Australian development assistance is now on track to fall to 0.19 per cent of gross national income—as I mentioned, that's the lowest level it has ever in our nation's history. This is a shameful record for a nation like Australia, particularly given the challenges that I mentioned earlier that we face within our region—not only around development goals, improving living standards and educational outcomes, but also around domestic violence, tackling climate change and strategic issues within our region.

We all know that the government has been withdrawing from multilateral institutions and withdrawing funding for international aid within our region, particularly the Asia-Pacific area, and that has provided an opportunity for countries from our north to enter the door that has been closed by this Liberal government in terms of relationships and partnerships with nations within our region. Under this Prime Minister, Australia's international aid is lower as a share of national income than it was under Liberal Prime Ministers Menzies, Holt, Gorton, McMahon, Fraser and Howard. So congratulations, Prime Minister, your government has set the record for Australia's lowest commitment to the international aid budget under your government! Australia's aid budget as a share of GNI has fallen from the middle of the OECD pack to one of the least generous amongst OECD Development Assistance Committee member countries.

Although I understand that this record may seem popular with the general populace, let me tell you it's an unwise and unstrategic move for Australia to be taking. Some of the things that Australian aid funds are vaccines for children in some of the poorest countries within our region. I'm talking vaccines for polio, for rotavirus and for other ailments that children simply should not be dying from. It funds books for schools. If you go to countries like Papua New Guinea, into the Highlands, just getting books for kids into the schools is a challenge. Some of the programs that Australian aid funds get those books into those schools.

The Pacific has some of the most shocking and some of the highest levels of domestic violence and violence against women of any region throughout the world, and Australia has been a principal supporter of programs to eliminate domestic violence and to change the culture around men's approach to violence against women within these societies. I'm talking about programs such as Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development. This was instituted by the Gillard government, and has been very successful in not only reducing the rates of violence but also providing important counselling and shelter for women who are forced to leave domestic situations. They are some of the programs that Australian aid funds. They are humane programs that are in the interests of people living in our region and in the interests of Australia and its relationships with those countries.

By reducing the level of aid funding we're giving to these nations, this bill is contrary to Australia's interests in promoting economic development, prosperity, stability and security that economic development brings. It's harming our international standing and our bilateral relationships. We all saw at the recent Pacific Islands Forum how scathing the Pacific nations and their leaders were of Australia and its approach to climate change. They are now actively saying that Australia is dragging the chain when it comes to climate change. And these are nations that know better than most: they are facing the prospect of having to move populations from these islands, their water wells are becoming salinised, crops they've traditionally relied on to feed their populations are becoming unsustainable, and road infrastructure is literally being inundated by the rising sea level.

These nations are at the front line of climate change, and Australia has been walking away from them—and they've been critical of Australia's international aid budget cuts in respect of that. It is at odds with Australian values, particularly those notions of a fair go and of Australia being a generous notion, and it is hurting some of the poorest people in the world.

It is high time that the government accepted that they're doing the wrong thing when it comes to international aid and that they reversed some of the shocking cuts we've seen to the international aid budget, not only because of the effects that those cuts are having on some of the poorest people within the region but also for the future economic prosperity of Australia and for our international reputation.

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