Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I refer to criticism earlier this year by the UN Secretary-General of the sharp decline in international funding for reproductive health and family planning. Is the minister aware that universal access to family planning would reduce maternal deaths by 20 to 35 per cent and child deaths by 20 per cent? Is the government aware that 200 million women in the developing world have no access to contraception and are unable to plan their families? If so, when will the government reverse the massive cut in Australia’s family planning aid over the last 12 years from 0.44 per cent in 1996 to just 0.07 per cent last year?