Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday I met with representatives of Micah Challenge here at Parliament House. I met with six of their representatives and I thank my constituent Joanna Elliot and also fellow Western Australians Jen Noonan, Matthew Bond and the State Director of Youth for World Vision, Ashleigh Williams. They were joined by Michelle Dobbs and Jenni Downes, who are from Sydney. I commend these Micah Challenge representatives for their forthright advocacy for the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals focus on the reduction of poverty with regard to the percentage of the population living on less than a US$1.25 per day, the reduction of hunger in the world and the reduction of the proportion of those who are undernourished. There are goals relating to the net enrolment ratio in primary schools, the increase of female political representation and the reduction of child mortality and maternal mortality rates, as well as the reduction of the incidences of infectious diseases such AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which go hand-in-hand with the goal related to the need for safe water and improved sanitation.

As representatives of the parliament of an advanced nation, these are goals that we all seek to meet. We acknowledge our responsibilities and we know that through our commitment we can achieve advances for those in the developing world. It is important therefore that we seek to maximise the value for money to be achieved. Every possible dollar must be targeted to real action on the ground and not towards the middlemen or to projects that really have no part to play in the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals. It is therefore disappointing when we hear of megasalaries and private contracts detracting from our aid programs. It is also amazing when we hear of even the AFL being given $307,843 for the promotion of football in Africa. I wonder what Millennium Development Goal that is targeting?

Contrast that to the great work being undertaken by the Mwika Hope Foundation in Tanzania, which is supported by local people in the electorate of Cowan. At the Mwika school in recent years they have built two classrooms for $25,000 each. They also built a six-by-eight-metre dining room for AIDS orphans That cost just $6,400, using local building stone and local labour. In this case, so much value has been achieved in one place. I therefore had no hesitation when I wrote to the government to highlight the work of the foundation and how they are certainly the sort of organisation that can achieve real gains for the Millennium Development Goals. The work of the Mwika Hope Foundation, particularly through their school project and their HIV programs supporting sufferers, advances many of the Millennium Development Goals.

The point is that progress towards the goals is best achieved through such high-quality organisations as the Mwika Hope Foundation. I applaud their efforts and I will advocate for them in the future. But, clearly, once you have super-NGOs, superbureaucracies and supercontracts you have superprices and supercosts. The one thing you do not have is super value for money. I wonder how much more could be achieved in the future with more money being sent to the right places, and that is what we should aim for.