Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the challenges, I think, for Australians is that we are becoming a little too selfish. If you look at generations in the past, they have contributed and done great things, and I wonder whether perhaps we need to lift our eyes to the shared humanity that we live within. Australians, I think, increasingly do want to do something outside of themselves, and the environment movement has been great at capturing some of those people, but I am still a believer that people are the principal of God's creation and that we should be doing more for people. In my electorate last year, we had a thing called Operation Christmas Child, where we encouraged people to work with their children to pack a shoebox and those shoeboxes were collected through our electoral offices and distributed to children on Christmas Day. Consider the delight of children in refugee camps and in very poor areas who do not even have a present to be able to open up and see. I commend our community on their participation in that.

My 6½-year-old foster daughter said to me the other day, 'What apps did you have on your iPad when you were my age?' which just shows how technology has changed. Of course iPads did not exist when I was 6½; it is a long time ago. In fact, the internet did not even exist when I was 18. But technology should afford us some opportunities. I want to reflect on the fact that, even with old technology, good messages can be told. A guy by the name of William Booth, who people would know as one of the founders of the Salvation Army, in his very last Christmas, as he was ageing, scraped together a little money to send a telegraph. He was an invalid, his eyesight was failing and he was reasonably poor, and he was only able to put one word in that telegraph. The word has become epitomised in the legends of the Salvation Army and that word was 'Others'.

There is something powerful about looking outside of yourself. There is something powerful, as Australians, about being generous to people in our regions. As we look at how we spend our Australian aid funding, I hope that some thought is given to an exchange program. The farmers I represent have skills that they can take over to impart in developing countries. Many people in their lives have built up careers but have skills that they would like to contribute back to the broader humanity. I think there is something powerful about the word 'Others' and ensuring that, as we think about aid, we think about how can enjoy the blessings we have as Australians but remember that the blessings we receive are not just for us; they are also for our region. We do live in a very poor region and we have an obligation as a country to ensure that, when we think about aid, human-to-human relationships are developed and that we remember the great word sent by telegraph, without an iPad, in 1910 by William Booth: 'Others'.