John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Wednesday, 22 June, I had the great pleasure of meeting with two members of Micah Challenge, Mr Rod Benson, Ethicist and Public Theologian at Morling Baptist College, and Mr Simon Massey, Advocacy Relations at Compassion Australia. I was very impressed by their passion and commitment to reduce global poverty, and I will now read their message to me to this House:

Micah Challenge is a global movement of Christian aid and development agencies, churches, groups and individuals, which aims to deepen people's engagement with the poor and to reduce poverty as an integral expression of Christian faith. Micah Challenge takes its name from the prophet Micah, who wrote, 'What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

In Australia, approximately 50 church denominations and development agencies are members of the Micah Challenge coalition, and over 113,000 individuals have signed on to the Micah Call.

Since Micah Challenge Australia's inception in 2004, grassroots Christians across the country have been taking action in their electorates and travelling to Parliament House to speak out on the Millennium Development Goals. Two weeks ago, Micah Challenge brought senior church leaders from Anglican, Australian Christian Churches, Baptist, Churches of Christ, Salvation Army, Uniting and Vineyard denominations to highlight that Australian churches are supportive of Micah Challenge's campaign.

The issue is simple and overwhelmingly evident every time you travel to a developing country. Almost 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty. This means they live on less than US$1.25 a day, which is insufficient to meet their most basic needs. They are hungry, susceptible to disease and lack access to things Australians take for granted, such as clean water, decent sanitation and access to health care.

The devastating impact of poverty is captured in child and maternal mortality rates. Each year 8.1 million children die before reaching the age of five, which is equivalent to 22,000 children dying every day. The vast majority of these deaths are readily preventable with simple solutions such as vaccinations and having access to a midwife during child birth. The good news is that progress is being made. The number of children dying each year has declined by approximately 35 per cent since 1990. There is a solution. What is needed is the willingness to act and deliver that solution.

Over the past couple of years, the Australian Government has taken strong actions that will save thousands of lives. Of particular note is the Australian government's recent $200 million commitment to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. This investment will fund an estimated 7.1 million lifesaving vaccines for the children of the world. However, the global effort required to achieve the Millennium Development Goals is huge.

Micah Challenge continues to call on all parties to hold firm on the delivery of the existing commitment to 0.5 per cent of GNI and indicate the date by which they will achieve the international aid target of 0.7 per cent of GNI. With only five years left to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, MDG 4 on child mortality and MDG 5 on maternal health are two of the goals that remain furthest behind schedule. Micah Challenge is calling on the Australian Government to focus its efforts on achieving these goals.

Health programs need to be a cornerstone of the Australian foreign aid program. There is strong evidence to suggest that health spending is highly effective in saving and improving lives and has a good return on investment in both a moral and economic sense. It is the catalyst for breaking the poverty cycle. The World Health Organ­isation estimates that to achieve these health-related MDGs will require $50-60 billion a year in global development assistance. Of this figure, Australia's 'fair share' is $1,200 million by 2012-13. For the coming financial year, Australia has only budgeted $642 million for health aid spending. Furthermore, over the coming five years, projected funding for the basic health and infectious diseases sector is budgeted to decline as a proportion of Australia's foreign aid program from its current estimated proportion of 13.27 per cent in 2011-12 to 9.66 per cent in 2015-16. This decrease is coming despite commitments from the Australian govern­ment to the new Global Strategy for Child and Maternal Health and the formation of a new international alliance, including Australia, on child and maternal health.

Micah Challenge is calling on all parties to support the scaling up of aid to health to reach 20 per cent of the overseas development assistance budget by 2015-16. These people have had their voice heard in this House tonight.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 10.30 pm the debate is interrupted.

House adjourned at 22:30