Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express my support for the Millennium Development Goals, which set important targets for poverty reduction by the year 2015. While we as Australians enjoy access to fresh food, clean water and quality health and education services, many in the world do not. In fact, 2½ billion people are denied proper sanitation, 7.6 million children die before their fifth birthday, and 287,000 women lose their life in childbirth due to preventable causes. That is why the Millennium Development Goals make a difference—they focus the international community's attention on the challenge ahead.

The Millennium Development Goals include: halving the number of people living on less than $1 a day; the provision of universal primary education; empowering women and achieving gender equality; cutting the child mortality rate by two-thirds; reducing the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters; reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other fatal diseases; promoting environmental sustainability and biodiversity; and building a global partnership for development.

I am proud that thousands of people in the Kooyong area are doing their part. Many have joined the Micah Challenge, and many churches—such as Hartwell Church of Christ, Hawthorn West Baptist Church, Hawthorn's Immaculate Conception Church, St John's Anglican Church Camberwell, St Hilary's in Kew and St Columb's in Hawthorn—have seen their congregations deeply engaged.

But there is no time to waste. As we approach the Christmas period, when many Australians will enjoy a good meal with their families, we should spare a thought for those millions of people around the world less fortunate than ourselves.