Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Tuesday morning, at the ecumenical prayer service for the opening of the 2025 parliamentary year held at St Christopher's Cathedral in Forrest, the Right Reverend Vanessa Bennett delivered an inspiring sermon entitled 'Hope in an uncertain world'. I emphasise the words 'hope' and 'uncertain' because right now the world is facing grave uncertainty. For billions of people throughout the world, hope is what keeps them going.

On a similar theme, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference statement of 2024-25, entitled Truth and peace: a gospel word in a violent world, quotes the following statement from Pope Francis:

A global ceasefire is urgent: either we do not realise it or we are pretending not to see that we are on the brink of the abyss.

It then states:

The last century was the most violent in human history, with the piles of corpses of Auschwitz and Hiroshima its demonic emblem. At the dawn of the new century and the third millennium there were hopes for a time of peace. But that was not to be. In 2022, it was reported that there were 55 state-based conflicts around the world and 82 non-state conflicts. According to the United Nations, this is the highest number of violent conflicts the world has faced since the Second World War. Two billion people live in countries wracked by such conflicts.

According to the UNHCR, as of June 2024, there were an estimated 122.6 million people around the world who had been forced to flee their homes. Of them, 43.7 million were refugees. Whilst most Australians live in relative peace and comfort far from rocket fire and bombs, throughout the world billions of others live in deep poverty, enslaved, oppressed, persecuted or in the midst of armed conflict.

In his message for the 58th World Day of Peace, marked on 1 January, Pope Francis spoke of the inhuman treatment inflicted on migrants, environmental degradation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue, the immense resources spent on the industry of war and how each of us must feel in some way responsible for the devastation to which the earth has been subjected. He went on to talk about true and lasting peace, foreign debt as a means of control by richer nations, and the abolition of the death penalty, and he calls for less money for weapons and more for development. I note that in 2023, according to one report, an estimated US$2.4 trillion was spent on arms globally. That is US$2.4 trillion that could otherwise have done so much good for so many people.

Our world is in economic turmoil. Our environment is being degraded, and every day billions of people struggle through life. So many people I speak with are both anxious and fearful of the world's future. They see a world driven by greed and power. There is no light on the hill or at the end of the tunnel, but they have hope—hope that the future will be better and that peace will prevail.

In my community, it is the Christian and other faith leaders who have become the loudest voices of reason, compassion, social justice and lasting peace. Their voices need to be heard by the global political leaders. Hope can become reality when global leaders act. Hope is driven by faith—faith in our leaders, faith in humanity and faith that good will prevail over evil.

So, in the spirit of Reverend Bennett's sermon, we can have hope when government policies unite rather than divide people; when compassion and tolerance are at the centre of administration; when we all strive for lasting peace; when our environment is valued and protected; when injustice, discrimination and inequality are not acceptable; and when human life is sacrosanct. The ecumenical prayer service was a reminder to us all of these values. In the uncertain world we live in, where the truth has been eroded and misinformation and disinformation flourishes, it is our commitment to these values that will raise our hope for a better future.

House adjourned at 17:00

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