Mal Washer (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on how Australia’s aid program is supporting basic human rights and the development needs of the citizens of Zimbabwe?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, I thank the honourable member for Moore for his interest in the issue of Zimbabwe. I know he joins with me and the government generally in expressing our horror at what has been happening in Zimbabwe. I have used some statistics during the last week or so to do with Zimbabwe. Honourable members might also like to know that in southern Africa the average GDP growth is around 5½ per cent, which honourable members would agree is not too bad. But in Zimbabwe, GDP declined by 7.1 per cent. That puts Zimbabwe and the administration of President Mugabe into some perspective. In the year 2000, Zimbabwe was a net exporter of food. Today, 3.2 million Zimbabweans—and the population is about 10 million or 11 million—are fed by the World Food Program, by the United Nations and by the international community. Zimbabwe has the highest proportion of HIV-AIDS victims anywhere in the world without access to treatment. It also has the highest orphan population per capita in the world. Out of around 11 million people, there are 1.3 million orphans. Those sorts of statistics explain the full horror of Zimbabwe.

We as a government feel very strongly about this. We feel that we have to do everything that we reasonably can to help the ordinary people of Zimbabwe. In the last year, we have increased our aid budget to Zimbabwe by 33 per cent. Obviously, we are focusing on ordinary people. We are not providing any assistance which the leadership of Zimbabwe could go anywhere near. We provided assistance through non-government organisations, through the World Food Program, through UNICEF and through the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. We have been helping with food, shelter, water and sanitation. We have also been helping in the area of HIV-AIDS. Just last week, I approved an $82,000 grant to a Zimbabwean non-government organisation to support their work in assisting victims of political violence. I will not name the organisation, because that will leave it vulnerable to Mugabe’s thugs. We are determined to help non-government organisations and civil society meet the challenge of the Mugabe government.

We are moving to establish an Australian Fund for Zimbabwe in the next financial year. Under this Australian Fund for Zimbabwe, we will be supporting non-government organisations which protect ordinary Zimbabweans. We will be looking for ways of broadening our humanitarian assistance and we will provide fellowships for civil society organisations. No amount of thuggery or brutality by President Mugabe will cover up the truth of his failure and nor will it deter Australia from trying to help the ordinary people of Zimbabwe. We can proudly say that Australia helped to bring about reform in Zimbabwe and helped to bring democracy originally to Zimbabwe some years ago. All of us are profoundly disappointed at what President Mugabe has done with that democracy. Australia owes it to the ordinary people of Zimbabwe to do everything we can to help them see the restoration not only of their living standards and their livelihoods but also of their human rights.