Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Bob Carr) to a question without notice asked by Senator Milne today relating to the overseas aid budget.

The issue here is that Australia made a commitment to increase overseas aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2015 as part of our contribution to reaching the Millennium Development Goals. What is more, the coalition supported that goal and has done so many times, including only last year when we put a motion through the Senate as a tripartite agreement to commit to that. There is a similar motion on the books today, and I hope that I will see the coalition continue to give its support, given that the government has cut its commitment.

The government's decision is appalling. The United Nations endorsed a target to meet the Millennium Development Goals to end poverty and hunger, to ensure universal education and gender equity and to improve child and maternal health. That target should have been 0.7 per cent of gross national income in foreign aid. That is the Greens policy; nevertheless, the government and the coalition had agreed to 0.5. Now we are going to see $3 billion taken out of that over the forward estimates. It is quite disingenuous to hear Minister Carr say, 'Oh, other countries have also cut their commit­ment to overseas aid.' One of the countries I can tell you about is the Netherlands. Yes, the Netherlands has cut its overseas aid budget, but it has done so to go from 0.75 per cent to 0.6 per cent. So, even with the cut, the Netherlands is well above what Australia has committed to. The point here is that other counties—Norway, Denmark and Sweden—have already surpassed the 0.7 per cent. The UK is on track to meet 0.7 per cent by 2013 in spite of the appalling economic circumstances in the UK, where we have already seen the UK Secretary of State for International Development say that he will not balance the books on the back of the poorest people in the world. So even the UK is sticking with its commitment to 0.7 per cent. The Netherlands, the UK, Germany, France and Ireland are all contributing more as a percentage of gross national income to overseas aid than Australia, and none of those countries has a surplus.

What is even more appalling is that we are making a bid for the UN Security Council, saying that Australia does what Australia says. What a joke! We have promised in the international community, globally accepted, that we will meet 0.5 per cent by 2015, and now we are not going to. For every statement that Minister Carr makes saying, 'Yes, look what our aid budget is already doing,' what is it that it will not be doing now—and extra—because we have decided to cut it? If you look at our nearest neighbours, what about a fair go? Last night the Treasurer said that the budget would look after the most vulnerable and uphold a fair go. Well, what about a fair go for the 15 mothers who will die or suffer permanent disability today alone giving birth in PNG? They are the statistics and that is the sort of issue we are dealing with. Or, as the Australian Council for International Development has said, 'Tonight we could have saved an extra 800,000 lives.' They are calling on the coalition to keep the promise that Labor has broken in relation to 0.5 per cent of gross national income in foreign aid.

We are living in the Asian century. Eighteen of our nearest neighbours are developing countries. Look at East Timor, where children are still dying of preventable illnesses because they cannot access vaccinations, where children are still starving. Children do not have access to universal education and women are not getting the support they need during their pregnancies and during childbirth. It is appalling that we, as the wealthiest country in the world, will not support developing countries in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It is a matter of shame for this country. Not only that, we are also not supporting the most vulnerable in Australia, those who are on Newstart.

But I particularly want to address the question of overseas aid, because it is more of a sleight of hand when you understand that Australia, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.