Harry Quick (Franklin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

to move:

That the House:

(1)

notes that:

(a)

microcredit is a proven means of eradicating poverty and that research by the World Bank in 1998 found that 40 per cent of loan borrowers had moved out of poverty after four years;

(b)

at the Microcredit Summit in Halifax, Canada in 2006, Australia endorsed the goal of having 175 million families receiving microcredit by 2015;

(c)

if the Microcredit Summit goal was achieved, then about half the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals, which is to halve the number of people who live on less than a dollar a day, would be met;

(d)

Australia spent $14.5 million on microcredit in its overseas aid program in the 2005-2006 financial year, which was less than one per cent of the overseas aid budget; and

(e)

the USA, which has funded microcredit longer than most countries, has established a current benchmark level of 1.25 per cent of the aid budget for microcredit spending; and

(2)

urges the Australian Government to follow through with its endorsement of the 2006 Microcredit Summit Goal with an increase in funding of microcredit to $40 million per year, or a level of 1.25 per cent of the aid budget, starting with the forthcoming Budget.

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