Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week, I was again delighted to show my support for Micah Challenge. Micah Challenge is a global campaign of Christians speaking out against poverty and injustice. It is currently working towards achieving the Millennium Development goals established in September 2000, in particular, to halve poverty and to improve human wellbeing by 2015.

As many of my colleagues are aware, I have been a strong advocate for this fantastic program throughout my time in parliament. This Tuesday, I was delighted to see this support grow as I was joined by my colleagues on the front lawn of Parliament House to place their photographs as part of a puzzle and to reinforce the parliament's commitment to contributing to the Micah Challenge goals.

During the Micah Challenge events, which ran all throughout Monday and Tuesday, I was pleased to meet with members from my community who are also strong advocates for this initiative. During this meeting I was advised by Sophie, Rachel and Caitlin—Year 10 student of Wycliffe Christian School in my electorate—that since 2000, great progress has been made. I would like to bring this to the attention of the House: more children than ever before are surviving to their fifth birthday and child mortality reduced since 1990; more women are receiving skilled care during pregnancy and childbirth, with maternal mortality reduced by 47 per cent since 1990; an additional 110 million children around the world are now in school; and finally, the target on safe drinking water has been largely achieved—although there is still more work to be done—with 89 per cent of the world's population drinking from an approved water source.

While these achievements are important, there is indeed a lot more work to be done. These students reminded me of this. I am greatly encouraged by the support of my colleagues, my family and also the local community that together are working to achieve an improvement in poverty across our globe, and indeed our region. To achieve this, more people fighting for and more people understanding the issue is critical. That is part of what Micah does. They encourage an awareness of the challenges the developing world faces in their local communities. Fundamental amenities we take for granted—clean water, clean toilet facilities and universal access to education—are not always available in the developing world. I wish to congratulate Micah Challenge for the work that they have been doing and for their ongoing advocacy.