Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Kingsford Smith for his motion that goes to the heart of a number of important issues that have been raised in recent months about the changes to Australia's aid budget. It is certainly the case that when we were in the Pacific, as he pointed out, members of parliament, prime ministers and others in those island nations when meeting with our foreign minister raised their concerns about cuts to Australia's aid program and what it would mean for them. We saw more than once the foreign minister reassure those people that they had nothing to worry about, but, as it turns out, that was a false reassurance.

Our aid program in the Pacific supports those who need it the most. Our programs support healthcare, infrastructure and education programs. They have a very real impact on our neighbours' quality of life. In the healthcare sector we provide drugs and medical equipment, we fund hospital maintenance, we deliver essential medicines, we train doctors and we provide professional training for healthcare workers.

The member for Brisbane, the previous speaker, spoke about child and maternal health, something we can all agree is an absolutely vital outcome of our aid work. How cutting $4.5 billion from our aid budget actually promotes child and maternal health is a little beyond me. Our programs reduce infant mortality rates, provide life-changing surgical procedures and fight common diseases. The infrastructure provided through our aid program in the Pacific lays powerlines to remote communities and builds roads, which opens communities to the outside world and to the very economic opportunities the previous member spoke of.

In the education sector we build schools, train teachers and fight to close the gender gap in classrooms. In Indonesia we have been building schools with ramps so that for the first time kids with disabilities can get into the classroom and get an education. These programs are essential, life-changing and life-saving services. These services are delivered to our neighbours and are in our best interests as well as theirs.

In addition to those poverty alleviation programs, our aid program supports sustainable economic and social development. These are programs which push for gender equity in development and reduce domestic violence. The member for Kingsford Smith spoke very movingly about our visit to the Vanuatu Women's Centre, which is another recipient of Australian aid. Since 2007 it has helped more than 10,000 survivors of family violence with counselling, legal assistance and accommodation and has worked to improve educational and economic outcomes for women.

In Solomon Islands we met the Acting Commissioner of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, Juanita Matanga. Her position and her story are representative of a changing society where women have more choice and opportunity. Her story demonstrates a changing society not only where development is represented and measured in economic terms but where our aid funding directly drives this positive change across the society of Solomon Islands.

We did not visit PNG on this trip, but our aid dollars there make such an enormous difference. Between 2004 and 2011 the number of women appointed to village courts increased from 10 to 1,000. At the end of 2011 there were 700 women working as magistrates and 300 working as clerks and peace officers. Aid funding went toward an awareness and training program responsible for increasing this number of women magistrates. You can imagine the huge change they make in a culture where sexual assault and domestic violence are so prevalent. Also in PNG aid programs have funded measures to improve the safety of public spaces, particularly marketplaces where women were being raped regularly when taking their goods to market. This program makes it possible for women subsistence farmers to take their goods to market and sell them safely for the economic benefit of themselves and their families.

These programs are examples of the nation-building work our aid program has done. They are programs which enable our neighbours to build the economies and societies that everybody deserves to have. They are in our best interests as well as in the best interests of our neighbours, because peace, security and better health services in our region benefit Australians as well.

Unfortunately, the government has made a series of choices that threaten the aid sector entirely. We have lost the expertise of those AusAID staff who have lost their jobs as they have been merged with DFAT. We have removed poverty reduction as an aim of the aid budget. The foreign minister's announcement of $61.4 million of cuts in the Pacific and $650 million in cuts in the first year of the aid program alone has dealt a devastating blow to the work we do. These cuts will return Australia to the historic low levels of funding under the Howard government. Instead of moving progressively to 0.5 per cent of gross national income it will fall to 0.32%— (Time expired)

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