Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge three young, passionate individuals from my local community who visited Parliament House two weeks ago to participate in the Make Poverty History awareness week. I had the pleasure of meeting with Zoe Tomaras from Kurrajong, who is a media and cultural studies student; Joel Clark from Blackheath, who is studying law and manages a local YMCA facility; and Caley Bawden from Katoomba, who is vice-captain at Wycliffe Christian School and has a passion for international policy development.

Around the globe more than 2.5 billion men, women and children live in grinding poverty on less than $2 a day. They suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition, preventable diseases such as malaria, measles and tuberculosis, environmental degradation, low literacy rates and countless other social, public health, economic and political challenges.

The eight Millennium Development Goals that we must continue to promote and support are: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve universal primary education; to promote gender equality and empower women; to reduce child mortality; to improve maternal health; to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development.

I commend Zoe, Joel and Caley and the other students who joined with them to help the Australian and international community draw attention to the importance of these goals. (Time expired)