Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In an article in Time magazine in 2005, Jeffrey D Sachs wrote an article entitled ‘The End of Poverty’. It is a powerful word portrait of the scourge of extreme poverty, but it is hopeful. Sachs said:

“The task of ending extreme poverty is a collective one—for you as well as for me. The end of poverty will require a global network of cooperation among people who have never met and who do not necessarily trust one another ...”

Sachs went on to say:

“We need plans, systems, mutual accountability and financing mechanisms but even before we have all of that apparatus in place—what I call the economic plumbing—we must first understand more concretely what such a strategy means to the people who can be helped ... “

That piece of writing by Sachs reminded me of a recent visit I had to the University of WA when a PhD student from WA showed me a video. He had been studying in China and he happened to visit one of the very poor villages on the very western edge of China. He went, he saw what was needed and this extraordinary young man acted when he came back to Western Australia. What he saw was that the children of these villages could not get to school and the villagers could not get produce to market because they lived at the top of a very steep cliff and in winter when the rains came the path was impassable. So they were locked in their village and the children spent many months without being able to access school. He came back to Western Australia and organised donations of cement and he raised money—something like $20,000, which is not a lot of money. He got all of it back to the village and he organised a community project with the local village leaders. The video he showed me was extraordinary because here they were, the people of this community—young men, old men, old women, young women and children—on a chain gang passing bags of sand and cement up the chain. They built something like 20 kilometres of pathway. Now the children can go to school every day of the year and the villagers can get their produce to market. I think that is the kind of understanding that Sachs was asking us to consider when he wrote that article.

On Tuesday I had the privilege of attending an art exhibition called Create to Advocate by Micah Challenge. It was also in this parliament last year. The Micah Challenge uses visual art to reflect the need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals to make poverty history. I commend the organisers for holding this exhibition to try to raise greater public awareness and particularly awareness in this place amongst those of us who have real power to help eliminate extreme poverty. Exhibiting artists presented a powerful visual portrait like Sachs’s word portrait, etching in our memory portraits and scenes that remind us that, despite our best efforts, we are nowhere near ending extreme poverty and reminding us of the devastating impact of extreme poverty on the lives of millions of people. The current financial worldwide troubles risk further entrenching extreme poverty and they will require us to redouble our efforts.

One of the artists who participated in the exhibition did so for the second year in succession. Her name is Michelle Allen, and she comes from the electorate of Pearce. Michelle captured perfectly the pain of poverty for individuals with her beautiful and, may I say, arresting portrait inspired by the work of another constituent, Mr Phil Lindsay, who is an aid worker with the aid organisation Tear.

Apart from Phil’s practical day-to-day work, which takes him into some of the most dangerous places on earth, Phil is an extraordinary photographer, capturing the images that he encounters every day in his work delivering aid to the world’s most impoverished. Michelle’s painting was inspired by one of Phil’s photos, taken during one of his many trips to Darfur in 2007. I pay tribute to Michelle Allen and Phil Lindsay and to all who join them in committing their time and talent to Make Poverty History and remind this place that this coming week, starting tomorrow morning at 6 am, is one where we stand up and take action on extreme poverty.