Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) recognises World Toilet Day 2018 on 19 November, as the day to recognise the importance of sanitation;

(b) notes that:

  (i) an estimated 4 billion people around the world live without access to a safe toilet, and 892 million people still practice open defecation,

  (ii) diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and unsafe water kills around 289,000 children every year,

  (iii) clean toilets contribute to poverty eradication by protecting people's health and ability to work,

  (iv) globally, lack of sanitation and unsafe drinking water costs the world economy an estimated $260 billion every year in lost productivity,

  (v) United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030, and

  (vi) the theme of this year's World Toilet Day is 'When Nature Calls' and recognises the important role of nature-based solutions to the sanitation and water crisis;

(c) also notes that, while an annual global expenditure of $158 billion is estimated to be needed to bring about the full implementation of SDG 6, as former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Chair of the Global Partnership on Sanitation and Water for All pointed out in a recent speech to the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention in New Delhi, less than $50 billion is currently spent worldwide; and

(d) calls on the Australian Government to increase its general aid commitments, including to its water, sanitation and hygiene aid programs.

Question agreed to.