Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Providing foreign aid is as important to Australia as it is to the recipients. With economic growth comes demand for the products Australia can supply. With economic growth comes political stability. Some sections of the community would argue that, in a budget emergency, charity begins at home and the foreign aid money should be diverted to domestic projects. This thinking is misguided and is not something that I, in any way, support.

Stephen Ives lives in Longford in my electorate of Lyons. Stephen is an agronomist and farming systems scientist who works with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. Since 2011, he has spent part of each year in Vietnam as part of a foreign aid research program, working alongside Vietnamese scientists to help fill the food gap in that developing country. Part of the research is determining the limitations to growing good-quality beef, better understanding the value chain from paddock to plate and what consumers are looking for when they purchase beef. Australia's beef exports have risen as the economic prosperity of our trading partners has increased—testament Japan post the Second World War, South Korea, Indonesia and China. This project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, started in March 2011 and will run until March 2015. First principles say that economic growth cannot be achieved without providing the fundamental building block of adequate nutrition for the population. You cannot fix up your own backyard when you do not know what is wrong in the backyard—hence the importance of Stephen's work.

Good nutrition is vital. RESULTS is an international, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organisation whose members campaign for the public and political will to end poverty. Gina Olivieri is RESULTS grassroots engagement manager. In 2010, an estimated 104 million children under the age of five were underweight and a further 171 million were stunted due to malnutrition. It is estimated that more than 55 million children under the age of five have acute malnutrition. Australians who work in this space understand that the best results come from helping recipient countries to develop their own support mechanisms, rather than just handing out cash. It makes sense for Australia's foreign aid not to be limited to but to be focused on and emphasise the Asia-Pacific region, of which we are a part.

Practical foreign aid that delivers people out of poverty and provides children with adequate nutrition is the foundation for building economic growth in the countries of our region which, in years to come, will be customers for the high-quality products we are capable of supplying from this country. After cuts to the foreign aid budget under Labor and dysfunction in the management of this section, at last providers have certainty thanks to the good work being done by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, and her department. Performance benchmarks into which results have had input are an important part of this project.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.