Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week I met with young people from Micah Challenge, a church based collective which participates in the Make Poverty History campaign. That campaign brings together a diverse range of people whose goal is to eradicate poverty and it monitors world progress in achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. As part of their trip to parliament this week, Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History organised an art exhibition called ‘Create to Advocate’ in which artists used their considerable talents to make a statement about the eradication of poverty and had their works displayed here in Parliament House. Anyone who has seen those works could not help but be very moved by the powerful messages they conveyed.

I was very pleased to note that the first prize for the exhibition was won by a young woman from my state of South Australia, Alexis Keogh. I would like to offer her my sincere congratulations both for her artwork and for the speech that she gave on winning that prize. It is very encouraging to see young people take a public role in the fight against poverty. Sometimes in this parliament we become so embroiled in debate about relatively inconsequential internal issues that we do not pay enough attention to the fact that every day 800 million people do not have enough food to eat and 100 million children do not have any access to education.

Seven years ago, along with the other 190 member countries of the United Nations, Australia committed to meeting the Millennium Development Goals. One of these goals is to halve world poverty by 2015. We are now halfway through 2007 and, despite the efforts of some countries, we have failed to slash world poverty by even 25 per cent. Australia is one of the least generous donor countries and, according to the OECD, we are failing to catch up to the other donor countries. It is predicted that, on current performance, in 2010 Australia will be giving 0.36 per cent of its gross national income to foreign aid. This is a long way from the United Nations agreed target of 0.7 per cent and behind the average country effort of 0.46 per cent of GNI. In 2006 Australia ranked 15th out of 22 developed country donors, whereas in 1970 we were equal top in that ranking.

One of the best and most economically efficient ways for donor countries to assist developing nations reduce poverty is to provide funding for projects that address family planning and reproductive health issues. The correlation between fertility control and good maternal and infant health, and reduction in the incidence of poverty is easily demonstrable.

Recently, the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development, of which I am a member, released a report entitled Sexual and reproductive health and the Millennium Development Goals in the Australian aid program—the way forward. The report was the culmination of two extensive roundtable discussions with various national and international experts, hosted by the PGPD and held in Canberra in August and September last year. The findings of those forums, as reported, included that provision of sexual and reproductive health services is essential in eradicating world poverty. The PGPD report found that without access to these services the MDG’s in relation to poverty, universal primary education, gender equality and child mortality—as well as the other MDGs—will not be met.

The PGPD report also examined and discussed Australia’s aid program and its impact on achievement of the MDGs. Our AusAID family planning guidelines do not provide for extensive education programs about sexual and reproductive health and family planning. There is no doubt that prevention of unwanted pregnancy, the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, and programs designed to give women control over their reproductive health should be more of a focus in our AusAID budget.

According to an AusAID publication entitled Helping health systems deliver:

Preventing unintended pregnancies through access to family planning would avert an estimated 20-35 per cent of all maternal deaths, saving the lives of more than 100 000 mothers each year.

While our aid program is wanting in adequate funding for sexual and reproductive health services, the situation is completely unacceptable when it comes to providing funding for abortion counselling and services. Unlike most donor countries, Australia places prescriptive restrictions on how the aid funds we donate are used. The guidelines to which I earlier referred limit contraceptive choice and prohibit AusAID funded programs and NGOs providing access to information about services for abortion, even in countries where abortion is legal and safely available.

It is extremely hypocritical for the Australian government to spend some $50 million on pregnancy counselling services in our own country but not to allow women in other countries where abortion is legal to benefit from counselling that could and should be funded by AusAID. The reason we are in this contradictory and embarrassing situation is the legacy of a deal struck between the federal government and a former senator who used his position of influence to pursue his own ideological agenda. In this case, he used his position to foist his beliefs on women in countries who desperately need our help, not our paternalistic religious zealotry.

The PGPD report that I referred to recommends that the government change the AusAID guidelines, and representations have been made to the Minister for Foreign Affairs—so far without success. No doubt the minister has been lobbied hard by people in this place who share former Senator Harradine’s views on abortion and who, therefore, are complicit in ensuring women in countries other than Australia will continue to die and suffer ill health and ongoing poverty because they do not have access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services.

By not providing information on abortion we are not stopping abortions from happening. The reality is that unsafe abortions are a common occurrence in countries that do not provide reproductive and sexual health services, including abortion services. According to AusAID, unsafe abortions kill an estimated 68,000 women a year, and those who survive are highly likely to contract diseases such as HIV-AIDS from dirty instruments. They are also likely to sustain permanent injuries. This poor health results in unemployment and underemployment for women in their most economically productive years. The report also stated:

Women who experience secondary infertility as a result of unsafe abortion or STIs are often divorced, leaving them more vulnerable to poverty and hunger.

It is ludicrous that Australia retains this hypocritical and damaging policy which continues to deny women in developing countries information and access to the full range of contraceptive and family planning services. We persist with a double standard that not only causes unnecessary death but also assists in the spread of debilitating diseases, including HIV-AIDS. The incidence of HIV-AIDS is increasing not only in the Asia-Pacific region but across the globe. UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation have estimated that in 2005, 40.3 million people in the world were living with HIV-AIDS. In the same year, an estimated 4.9 million people were newly infected with HIV and approximately 3.1 million people died from AIDS.

Australia’s aid program should include all measures possible to prevent the spread of AIDS, and that includes provision of information and services about safe termination of pregnancy. I note that next month, in Sydney, Australia will be hosting the fourth International AIDS Society conference. Some 6,000 delegates from countries around the world will be attending. It is a very important conference which will focus on prevention and treatment of HIV-AIDS. It is an honour for Australia to host the conference, which will be attended by eminent scientists, medical specialists and experts in this terrible disease.

It was therefore very disturbing to hear the Prime Minister, in April this year, question whether Australia should allow HIV-positive people into Australia. Such comments are disgraceful and humiliating—much like our restrictive AusAID guidelines. Instead of our nation being a leader in the provision of aid and in addressing matters of international significance such as HIV-AIDS, Australia comes across as insular and patronising. Thank goodness there are members and senators in this place—from all parties—who have a broader vision of Australia’s role in the provision of aid and assistance to developing countries.

I would also like to note that as part of the Make Poverty History campaign, in July this year the Zero Seven Road Trip will take place. Along with Australian artists, 500 young people will be jumping aboard buses all over the country to raise awareness about poverty and to work to ensure that Australia keeps to its promise of giving 0.7 per cent of its budget to foreign aid by 2015. Our young people willingly give up their time and their money to commit to the cause of eradication of poverty, and it is time for our government to follow through with its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.