Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

expresses its concern at the tragically high incidence of extreme poverty in the world;

(2)

supports the Australian Government’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals;

(3)

recognises recent increases in Australia’s commitment to overseas aid; and

(4)

urges continued efforts towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the halving of world poverty by 2015.

It is too easy from the comfort of our own relative affluence to tune out to the devastating impact of world poverty. Yet surely none of us would find it remotely acceptable that over one billion people live on less than $1 a day, that 10 to 12 million children die each year from largely preventable illnesses, that the maternal mortality rate of 670 per 100,000 live births in developing countries is 50 to 60 times the rate that we experience in affluent countries, that over 100 million children do not attend school or that some 50 million people are living with HIV-AIDS as it rages through many developing countries.

Thus the agreement of the United Nations members, including Australia, in the year 2000 was to strive towards halving world poverty by the year 2015 by addressing the eight agreed Millennium Development Goals. Specifically, these goals aim, by 2015, to halve the number of people living on less than $1 a day; to achieve universal primary education; to eliminate gender disparity in education; to reduce by two-thirds the childhood mortality rate; to reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality rate; to reverse the spread of HIV-AIDS, malaria and other major diseases; to ensure environmental sustainability and reverse the loss of environmental resources, including halving the number of people without safe drinking water; and to develop a global partnership for development which includes a fairer trading and financial system.

I welcome the increased efforts of the Australian government in recent years. The year before last, in the 2005-06 budget, we increased our overseas aid giving by $358 million—an increase of some 12 per cent. In this year’s budget we increased our overseas aid program by another $455 million, some 15 per cent. I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment last year to doubling Australia’s aid commitment to $4 billion by 2010.

I also welcome the announcement by the Treasurer just last month of another $136 million for the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. That is in addition to earlier relief of bilateral debt under the HIPC program, to which we contributed some $112 million. I welcome Australia’s leadership in trying to liberate world trade and reduce the trade barriers which severely impede the efforts of developing countries to benefit from world trade. We are also leading by example in this by applying zero tariffs to all imports from the world’s 50 poorest countries.

These are very significant initiatives. However, there is still more to be done. I urge the Australian government to continue to increase the quantum of overseas aid to work towards the UN goal of 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2015. We need to continue our work with developing countries to build effective systems of governance to ensure that the best use is made of this aid. We need to continue our leadership in the push for more equitable trading regimes which will allow developing countries to access world markets as an important means of stimulating economic growth.

But we also need to remember our own responsibility as individuals in this matter. It is easy for us to sit back and expect the government to do what we are often not willing to do ourselves. Yet tax deductibility for donations to accredited aid organisations effectively means that the Australian government heavily subsidises an individual’s aid-giving. If we expect the government to give then we as individuals also need to give to assist the world’s poor. The tragic effects of world poverty make it incumbent on us all to carry our share of the weight and work towards reducing the suffering of those far less fortunate than us. The human cost of inaction is just far too great.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Macquarie is to be congratulated on continuing to bring this issue into the House, and I note that he moved a motion in similar terms in 2005. It comes at a particularly important time in the ongoing debate and growing campaign for the relief of debt for Third World countries and, naturally, for the encouragement that is necessary for the world community to make poverty history. This week, 15-21 October, is Anti-Poverty Week, and International Anti-Poverty Day is on 17 October. Today, outside Parliament House, I and other Australians, including the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, gathered to record our support for tackling poverty with a world record attempt for standing up; Stand Up is a campaign to send a clear message to world leaders that we must take a stand against poverty, and it was a message that members on all sides of the House wanted to send through to leadership here.

Whilst it is true that the federal government has identified the need and, as the Chief Government Whip has said, has offered a modest increase in the aid budget this year, it is a fact that Australia still rates poorly when compared to other developed countries. That is a challenge for the Howard government. If it is fair dinkum about aid, it must lift its proportion of aid in relation to other equivalent countries in order to give the terms of this motion some effect. We still sit about 18th or 19th in aid expenditure and, whilst it is recognised that the debt forgiveness packages that the member for Macquarie referred to are welcome, a number of the amounts in relation to the debt forgiveness packages have gone towards the campaign in Iraq and that has inflated Australia’s overall commitment.

The Millennium Development Goals advocate a halving of global poverty by 2015. But currently the federal government’s commitment in the aid budget of only 0.35 per cent of GNI by 2010 means that we will fall short of this goal. Indeed, a report issued on 14 August of this year by World Vision, How are the neighbours, showed that nearly six years on from the commitment to the Millennium Development Goals a number of countries in the region are struggling and at least eight countries, including Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, Timor Leste and Laos, are significantly off track. Of some criticality, goal 4 of the Millennium Development Goals, reducing infant mortality, stands out as being a goal which a number of nations have been unable to reach. It is very clear that, for low-income countries in particular, aid remains an important determiner of service provision and, notwithstanding issues that relate to governance or debt levels—and they are important issues—providing additional significant investment and support for people in low-income countries, particularly in terms of reducing infant mortality, is absolutely critical.

I have raised previously in the House the government’s failure to properly commit to microcredit. Microcredit means small business loans which can be used to help start or expand small businesses. Only 0.6 per cent of Australia’s aid budget is for microcredit programs. Compare that to the United States, where the figure is closer to 1.25 per cent. I do urge the government to consider increasing its commitment to microcredit. Last week one of the founding fathers of microcredit, Professor Muhammad Yunus, and the bank he set up, the Grameen Bank, were honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘their efforts to create economic and social development from below’. It is absolutely critical that we provide additional assistance to those efforts.

Finally, in order to be serious about poverty we also need to be serious about climate change. Climate change and development, particularly as we go forward, are critical. Unless we not only address climate change and seriously tackle poverty in the region in tandem with assisting people but also have rigorous policy from the national government here in Australia to address climate change, then rates of infectious diseases, increases in the incidence of extreme weather events and temperature increases in the region will affect our neighbours there.

Labor have a response to the government’s aid white paper. We call for a legislative charter for Australia’s development assistance. We identify the need for a global development institute, separate to AusAID, to improve transparency, and we seek a Pacific development trust which would facilitate microcredit loans. Incremental increases in aid, which the government has made, are acknowledged, but for the government to be really serious about making poverty history it will have to make substantial commitments in policy, funding and approach, and that is what we urge with this motion.

Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia must continue to assist with achieving the Millennium Development Goals and tackling global poverty. The Prime Minister, the Hon. John Howard, endorsed the Millennium Declaration at the Millennium Summit in 2000. In September last year he also attended the United Nations World Summit, where he endorsed world summit outcome documents. He also announced in 2005 that the overseas aid allocation would increase to $4 billion a year by 2010. I welcome this announcement which underlines the government’s commitment to poverty reduction, sustainable development and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Australia will meet the Millennium Development Goals by assisting developing nations through supporting health and education systems, promoting broad based economic growth and recognising the importance of the private sector and effective governance, democracy and anti-corruption measures. The World Bank estimates that corruption costs the world $1 trillion every year. However, any reform of corrupt systems must be led from within. There must be a will within the governments to make the necessary changes to remove corruption.

The MDGs emanated from the Millennium Declaration in 2005, which focused on poverty and hunger, education, gender equality, child and maternal mortality, and health and the environment. Achieving progress towards the MDGs is a complex challenge. Australia’s approach is to focus on promoting the conditions and building blocks necessary for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, as outlined in the Australian 2005 Millennium Development Goals progress report.

The main Millennium Development Goal, the first goal, is to eradicate extreme hunger by enabling the poor to access benefits and opportunities provided by economic growth—for example, in Cambodia, by improving the food security of the 212,000 established farming households under the Agricultural Quality Improvement Project. The NGO community also supports the Millennium Development Goals through the Make Poverty History campaign, which focuses on areas of aid, trade and debt relief to achieve progress towards the MDGs.

Aid alone will not be sufficient to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Trade liberalisation, backed up by supportive domestic policies and good governance, offers particularly significant benefits. This campaign in Australia is supported by a coalition of more than 50 aid agencies, community groups and religious organisations. The campaign focuses on the areas of aid, trade and debt relief to achieve the MDGs. In addition, there is the Micah Challenge, a worldwide church campaign launched on 25 October 2004. It involves a worldwide network of relief and advocacy groups consisting of three million churches and 267 groups in 111 nations.

The second Millennium Development Goal focuses on promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Australia’s response to the HIV-AIDS epidemic has targeted women and girls, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, as they represent an increasing proportion of people living with this disease. Also, countries that adopt specific measures to protect women’s rights and increase their access to health services, resources and schooling have less corruption and achieve faster economic growth than countries that do not. Placing value upon women will boost a nation’s economic, social and political strength.

Australia also recognises that violence can severely disadvantage women, which is why there is Australian aid funding for institutions such as the Women’s Crisis Centre in Fiji, which the government provided $1.7 million to this financial year. AusAID also supported empowering women’s decision making, especially in Tonga and the Solomon Islands. AusAID also supports Opportunity International in their empowerment of poor women through a microfinance project. This project operates in the Philippines, Indonesia and India. However, it is a continuing concern that of some 65 developing countries only half have achieved gender parity in primary education, about 20 per cent in secondary education and eight per cent in higher education. Parity in education is critical for women to engage fully in society and the global economy.

Looking at the sixth goal, continuing to combat HIV-AIDS, the pandemic shows no sign of abating. The spread of HIV-AIDS threatens people’s lives and regional stability and could reverse the gains in economic progress in many countries. The World Bank recently concluded that the future of global HIV-AIDS will be determined in Asia. While the focus has been on Africa, and that is important, it is as important that we place greater focus on our region, the Asia-Pacific region. Australia’s focus on the Asia-Pacific region will continue. For example, the government’s multi-year $600 million HIV-AIDS commitment directly addresses goals to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV-AIDS.

The Australian government is committed to doing all that it can to ensure that world poverty is halved by 2015, not only by providing aid financially but also, and as importantly, by assisting with good governance and economic integration. (Time expired)

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources, Forestry and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the House for the opportunity to address the issue of the UN Millennium Development Goals this afternoon. In speaking to this issue in the people’s house, the House of Representatives, I stand with many Australians and millions of people globally from almost 100 countries, both rich and poor, in standing up against poverty. Stand Up is just one event organised by Make Poverty History that seeks to raise the awareness of the need to urgently act to help the world’s poorest.

Earlier today, a collective of politicians, staff and the community stood up in front of Parliament House as part of this global event. That included the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. Stand Up is an event that has been largely led by young people, and they are to be commended for their empathy in wanting to help those most in need. Over 1.1 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion people live on less than $1 a day. As the gap between the world’s wealthy and poor continues to widen, it is more important than ever for us to face up to the issues of inequality both abroad and in our own backyards—for example, in our Indigenous communities—so as to try to do something practical to assist the less privileged in the global community.

Labor’s participation in Stand Up reflects our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. They are, clearly, goals worthy of implementation. They seek to halve extreme poverty, enable the provision of universal primary education and gender equality, reduce child mortality, AIDS and other diseases, and improve mental health and environmental sustainability—wonderful objectives for all of us to embrace.

I remind the House that it is just over one month before the Treasurer will host the G20 finance meeting in Melbourne. It is an opportunity for the world’s richest nations, such as Australia, to help come good on promises it and other developed countries like the United States and England made as part of the millennium goals. The government’s commitment to increase aid from the present 0.28 per cent of gross national income to 0.36 per cent by 2010, as outlined in the aid white paper, is a welcome, if overdue, initiative. But the opposition and many in the Australian community also believe it is not enough. We have to do more. In this month’s Make Poverty History second report on Australia’s performance under the Millennium Development Goals, a review has found that, yes, Australia has taken some significant steps towards more effective aid in the last 12 months. However, on a global level, more has to be done to increase our commitment internationally to realise the millennium goals. It is a start, but it is not enough. Obviously, our increased contribution is a positive step forward, but it is still considerably less than leading European donors in the OECD. The OECD predicts, for example, that if we do not increase our aid budget it will leave us 18th out of 22 donors in terms of our aid to gross national income ratio. These facts speak for themselves.

Where we want to be as a nation, and what is decent and proper, is leading us in this debate. It is about continuing Australia’s long-held spirit of mateship at home and a question of a fair go abroad. Therefore, the question is: does the spirit of equality stop at our shores? I argue that it does not. Britain, France and Spain are all increasing their aid contribution to 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2010, while Denmark, Sweden and Norway have all either equalled or exceeded the target. That is what leadership is about and that is where Australia should aspire to be.

In hosting the G20 finance meeting on 18 and 19 November, the Treasurer has a unique opportunity to show leadership in ensuring the G20 move forward on the debate on debt relief. That would be real leadership we could all be proud of as Australians. Real leadership would say to the global community that we care about doing something practical. It would demonstrate that we are about achieving our fair share of aid relief in the 2007-08 budget by continuing Australian momentum with a repeat of this year’s increase. Wouldn’t that be a great announcement for the Treasurer to make in the lead-up to the G20 meeting? I challenge the Treasurer to give serious consideration to that proposition in cabinet deliberations.

If we can actually do something on that front, then we can do more, as we all want to do something about halving poverty, overcoming the problems of a lack of education and gender in equality, reducing child mortality, AIDS and other diseases, and improving mental health—all objectives, including environmental sustainability, that we can make progress on at home and internationally. It is about doing something about our aspirations as a nation—a promise by rich nations such as Australia to the world’s poor that we actually understand and appreciate their problems and can do something better to help them. (Time expired)

Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

‘Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural; it is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.’ This is a statement by Nelson Mandela, and how true it is. The effects of global poverty are massive. Every year more than 11 million children, most under the age of five, die of hunger and preventable diseases—that is over 30,000 per day and one every three seconds. More than six million die annually from completely preventable causes such as malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia, and another six million will die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday. Over 300 million children who go to bed every day—more than 90 per cent—are suffering from long-term malnourishment. The really disturbing thing is that these children do not have to die. The malnutrition and disease are preventable. So I welcome the chance to speak on this motion put by my friend the member for Macquarie.

That the Australian public has taken on this cause, whether through the Micah Challenge or the Oaktree Foundation’s Knock Out Poverty day, is something that needs to be welcomed. Make Poverty History is, indeed, a cause that every Australian and every humanitarian minded individual on this globe should embrace. I dare say the only people who could possibly disagree with the eight Millennium Development Goals are those despots who have vested interests in making people remain in poverty.

I had the chance to speak to a group of young people in my electorate over the weekend. The Oaktree Foundation and those in the churches through the Micah Challenge banded together and over 200 predominantly young people made a small sacrifice in an attempt to make poverty history. They committed to doorknock sections of my electorate of Deakin on Saturday afternoon in an attempt to raise awareness about the Millennium Development Goals. I congratulate those young people for their passion. It is fantastic to see a cause that can bind people together with one goal in mind—and that is to raise awareness and, more importantly, to achieve action in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. I was impressed by the maturity with which the group approached this problem. They understand the importance of effectively communicating their message in a bipartisan, apolitical way, and for that they are to be congratulated. These young people have a cause that they believe in and that they are prepared to fight for. This cause is not self-serving, it is not egotistical; it is compassionate and altruistic. We as a government need to commit our attention to these young people, follow their example and heed the call that they and many others around Australia and around the world have been making upon us as the decision makers.

Of course there has been a response at government level. I note the comments from those on the other side who have acknowledged the move by this government to increase aid, but I also note their comments that more needs to be done. Of course more can always be done, but we do need to recognise where a response has been made. Last year the Prime Minister announced that the aid allocation would be increased to about $4 billion a year by 2010. It shows this government’s commitment to poverty reduction, sustainable development and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. We have also seen that in 2006-07 Australia will provide just under $3 billion in official development assistance. This is an increase of $455 million. We are committed to providing targeted debt relief.

I note, in the response of the Make Poverty History campaign to the white paper on aid, a table of where the nations in our part of the world lie on the various goals. The example that struck me was that of Papua New Guinea. The table shows that on every goal they are languishing. We need to be reminded that Papua New Guinea is the greatest recipient of aid from this country; over $500 million per annum goes to Papua New Guinea. What this demonstrates to me is that money is not the only answer to resolving poverty in this world. If money were the answer we would not see campaigns like this needing to be waged over and over again. There are other aspects to it, and that is why I believe the Millennium Development Goals are a refreshing change to what is required, because they do tackle the issue of trade and they do tackle the issue of governance and partnerships. (Time expired)

Harry Jenkins (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is appropriate, during Anti-Poverty Week from 16 to 22 October and the day before the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, that we should be discussing a motion such as the one moved by the Chief Government Whip, the honourable member for Macquarie. Of course we do express our concern at the high incidence of poverty throughout the world and, as citizens of a developing country, a lucky country, we should see an opportunity for us to be involved in the campaign to rid the world of poverty.

One of the things that has really heartened me is that this is being led at a community level. Other members in this debate have made mention of those campaigns, broadly under the umbrella of the Make Poverty History campaign, but, like the member for Deakin, I have had the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Oaktree Foundation, and the week before last I had representatives of local churches come to me under the banner of the Micah Challenge. They presented me with letters and petitions from a couple of hundred of the constituents of my electorate of Scullin in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and I believe that this was a great expression of the concern that abounds in the community. The parishioners were from Epping, St Johns Anglican, South Morang Assembly of God, Plenty Valley Salvation Army, Plenty Valley Uniting Church, Greensborough Calvary Lutheran, Greensborough Uniting and Greensborough Church of Christ—a broad representation of the electorate. This follows my ability earlier in the year to present that large, 13-metre banner with 1,400 signatures from the whole community of Parade College in Bundoora. So certainly this is an issue where the people of Australia are saying to government, saying to their members of parliament, ‘This is a campaign that we should be involved in.’ And they are starting to really understand the thread that runs through the eight millennium goals and the challenge that has been thrown down to achieve those outcomes by the year 2015.

This is not a debate for some sort of partisan point-scoring. And I acknowledge that, in this motion, we acknowledge and recognise the increased effort that has been made. But, simply put, if we look at our nation in a ladder of nations, in the OECD we rank 18th of 22, even in the projection to 2010. And if we look at the goal we require to aim at—and people talk about a benchmark of 0.7 per cent of GNI—we see that it is only the Benelux countries and the Scandinavian countries that will have achieved that goal by 2010. So when we look at these levels we have to ask, ‘What is required to reach those levels?’ The Micah Challenge set a goal of 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2010. Even at the annual increase for this year of 15 per cent—if, each year through to 2010, we had a 15 per cent increase—we would only reach 0.49 per cent.

I do not want to fall into the trap of saying that resources are the only thing. I do not want to fall into the trap of saying that the size of the bucket of money is important. There is one thing that the member for Deakin said that I applaud him for expressing in this debate, and that is that when we look at countries like—I agree—PNG, one has to say that this goes beyond the amount of resources; this has to go to the way in which we engage with countries.

If we look at this Make Poverty History document, a response to the white paper on aid and a submission on the budget to the Australian government of September 2006, and look at table No. 1, which looks at our neighbours in South-East Asia and the Pacific, it is really chilling. If we look at Papua New Guinea, it is off-track on every indicator. The Philippines is off-track on five of the millennium goals. The Solomons is off-track on four of the goals. Timor Leste is off-track on two of only three on which there is information. So there has to be a better way in which to engage. We cannot be seen to be patronising in our engagement with these countries, but we have to bring them forward. We have to bring them forward as trading partners and we have to bring them forward by showing example. (Time expired)

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is therefore adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.