Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I offer my thanks and congratulations to the member for Calwell for her motion today. The abject and dehumanising impact of poverty on more than a billion fellow souls—that is what this motion is about. That is what we, as a parliament and as people who are part of a broader global community, recognise and focus upon. We know that of all the people who have lived throughout history in all of the different societies we are amongst the most fortunate. We are amongst those who live with a rare standard of living. It has been our fortune and our blessing to live in this place in these times. By comparison, the reality of economic life for the vast majority of people throughout the vast majority of history has been cruel and crushing. There has been great joy amidst that process but the nature of economic life and physical life has been crushing for so many people for so much of history.

What we are witnessing at this moment, however, is the fastest movement at any time in humanity’s course of people from poverty to economic circumstances which are far preferable. That is something which is welcome, but it is a rate of progress which is nevertheless too slow, which is nevertheless not what we seek to achieve, which is nevertheless still going to fall short of the Millennium Development Goals to which Australia first committed itself, on a bipartisan basis, in 2000. These goals—although in part they have been met, although in part they have been progressed—remain as relevant today as ever before. Whether it is education, health, access to clean water, women’s rights or the economic opportunity for people to make something of their own lives, to give themselves the best shot at the life of their choice, the tasks are real, germane and present.

I am proud to have been part of the previous coalition government, to have played a very small role, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in the aid program and to have witnessed programs such as the Indonesia reconstruction program—the creation and development of thousands of schools to help people in Indonesia have the opportunity to read and write, to engage in economic activity, to be part of that world which benefits from having education—clean water programs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and education programs for women in the Philippines. All these things are good things. Many of these things have been continued by the current government. We will have our points of disagreement over specific programs or quantum or effectiveness, but the direction, the heft, the weight, of history is about Australia as a country contributing to the achievement and improvement of the Millennium Development Goals. These are profound human tasks and responsibilities.

I come back to where I began. We are amongst the very fortunate few in all of history. So many people for so much time have lived in such abject poverty that to live as we do, with all the accoutrements of the modern age—whether it is lighting, refrigeration, hygiene or any of these things—means it is our task, our duty, our responsibility, to do all that we can to provide a way forward for others. There is a paradox, of course, in that development on a grand scale in China, India, Indonesia and Russia brings with it the challenge of emissions. The paradox of development and global environmental impacts is one that we must resolve as a society and as a globe.

I commend the member for Calwell for this motion. It is important. It is important that this parliament can debate it in a bipartisan way but it is important that we step beyond this parliament and that we remember the people of Africa, Asia, Latin America and parts of the Middle East who live in abject poverty, who do not have that to which we have become accustomed and that with which we are blessed. (Time expired)

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