Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Moore, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was formed nearly 30 years ago, bringing together Rotary International, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in a common cause: to eradicate polio once and for all,

  (ii) when GPEI commenced, more than 350,000 cases of polio paralysed and killed children in 125 countries annually,

  (iii) in 2016, only 37 cases of polio were recorded in three countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria – two of which are priorities for Australian development assistance, and

  (iv) a funding gap of $US 1.3 billion for implementing the GPEI's current strategic plan needs to be filled to complete the task of polio eradication within the next three years;

(b) acknowledges that:

  (i) investment in completing polio eradication will benefit future generations of children who will be free of this devastating disease, and other health programs and initiatives will benefit from the knowledge and experience gained through polio eradication,

  (ii) completing eradication of polio would be the first concrete success of the Sustainable Development Goals, providing a basis for reaching children with life-saving interventions in the most remote, vulnerable and socially-excluded communities,

  (iii) Commonwealth leaders, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, agreed at the latest Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2015 to accelerate action and renew financial support to eradicate polio, and

  (iv) the current Parliaments of Australia and other countries have the opportunity to be the elected representatives who ended polio completely; and

(c) calls on the Australian Government to maintain its annual contribution to GPEI at $15 million in the next two financial years, to follow through on this renewed commitment and assist in making the end of polio a reality.