Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fowler for moving this motion and bringing this debate to parliament. World Humanitarian Day, 19 August, is one of many United Nations days which are there to encourage the global community to celebrate certain achievements and to educate people, but also, importantly, to mobilise political will and resources to address common global problems.

There is two purposes for this day and I'll touch on each. The first purpose is to pay tribute to aid workers across the world who risk their lives in humanitarian service. We heard the shocking statistic that every year at least 300 aid workers are killed, detained or injured just for going about their jobs. They're unsung heroes and often women. Societies across the world always laud military service and that's appropriate. We had a debate earlier today in this chamber about those who serve—the sacrifice and the ideals that that represents—putting their lives at risk, and that is appropriate. It's visible and it's understood. Of course, there is a darker side of nationalism if that's overdone in some societies, but I think we get the balance right in Australia.

We must take care not to forget other forms of service where people's lives are also at risk. The situation globally is the gravest since World War II. We have more than $65 million people displaced in the world due to conflict, who are unable to live in their homes. Millions are caught in conflict zones, living in conflict zones, in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, just to name a few. They struggle to access food, water, safe shelter or medical assistance. Providing aid and help to people in these areas is, of course, dangerous work. Shockingly, aid workers are directly targeted by combatants, treated as threats by many to their political objectives and harassed or prevented from going about their life saving work. I think it's fair to say we can all agree on that part.

The second purpose of World Humanitarian Day is to rally support for people affected by crises globally. It is not just war or violent conflict or humanitarian disasters but it's all of the other things we see across the Asia-Pacific—330 million people are living in extreme poverty and 1.5 billion people are still unable to access safe sanitation or water and are malnourished. In a civilised world, in a decent world and in a safe world I think we would face up to this reality and not accept global poverty at this level. People are starving. They have no prospects of fulfilling their human potential. This requires more than words. It requires nations, those in a position to do so, to be generous and play their part.

In that context, I rise to condemn this Liberal government's $11.3 billion cuts to the Australia's International Development Assistance Program. It says everything you need to know that despite the member for Newcastle, quoting the Prime Minister in his first speech to parliament, applauding a rise in the aid budget, this government, under this Prime Minister, has cut $11.3 billion. They can't even fill the speakers list for this debate. They've got three speaking slots on this motion and yet they had one bloke turn up and talk about stuff that's done in his electorate. I noticed—listening to the member for Berowra, who made a lovely speech there—he talked about people who come to his office and talk about the quantum of the aid budget. What he meant by that is cuts. It's the Christian church organisations like Micah—that fantastic organisation that pushes these values—that are in their offices calling them out for record cuts that they've made to the aid budget. Australians and the government should be ashamed that our level of investment in the region and, more importantly, globally, is at the lowest level on record.

You talk to people in the community and they say, 'Charity begins at home,' but that is said with an impression that we're somehow handing out most of our national wealth and giving it away in cheques. The fact is we now give around 20c in every hundred dollars. We're one of the wealthiest nations in the world and around 20c in every hundred dollars is all this government can find to deal with the people in the world living in the most extreme poverty. The government should be ashamed. I believe we can do better than 20c in every hundred dollars.

In closing, I'll summarise the reasons I think this is important. Firstly, this is who we are as a people. We have a proud history in Australia of doing our bit in the region and of not forgetting our debts from World War II to East Timor and Papua New Guinea and our neighbours. Secondly, it's good international citizenship and—this may resonate more with the people over there—it's in our national interest. It is one of the four key pillars of our foreign engagement, alongside defence, foreign policy and trade. (Time expired)

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