Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table a noncompliant petition.

Leave granted.

I thank the House and I thank members opposite for their willingness to accept this. I have a petition from the Glen Waverley Anglican Church which reads as follows:

This petition from the members of the Glen Waverley Anglican Church, 800 Waverley Road, Glen Waverley, draws to the attention of Alan Griffin MP the $1 billion cut to the foreign aid budget. As followers of Jesus Christ, we strongly believe that wealthy nations such as Australia have a moral obligation to make a meaningful contribution to the global effort to eradicate poverty. We are disturbed by the cuts to the foreign aid budget and urge you as the federal member for Bruce in the Australian parliament to speak out against them as an advocate for the people in our region who are struggling against poverty.

It is with a heavy heart that I read that, because I know members on both sides of the House understand. Many of us have been to places that receive Australian foreign aid—yourself included, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott. We have seen the excellent work that is done on behalf of the Australian government to support people in need in various parts of our region and in various parts of the world, and we know that this is something which needs to be supported.

I understand and I do not wish to be heavily political in this, but both sides prior to the last election and over the years have been supportive of the Millennium Development Goals and of pushing towards the goal of setting 0.7 per cent of gross national income as a basis for aid into the future. But unfortunately that is not where we are headed now, and that is something that I think both sides of the House need to reflect on in the years ahead. Again, I do not wish to be political but I wish to say that we need to redevelop a consensus on foreign aid. We need to redevelop a commitment to increase our foreign aid into the future. We ought to note that governments such as the conservative government in the United Kingdom have now legislated for 0.7 per cent of GNI to be the basis of their aid budget and have actually reached that target.

There is much more to be done in this area. The representatives of the church, which included Bek and Gary McClellan, pointed me towards a YouTube video from Charlie Pickering, the comedian on The Weekly show, where he gave an explanation of foreign aid. I have to say it was funny but it was also tragic in terms of some of the key points that it made. He made the point that effectively what we are seeing now is the lowest level of foreign aid that we have seen as a percentage of GNI as a result of these cuts than we have ever had. It is back to the levels of the 1950s, before even I was born. The circumstances are that when we look to the future, and he made a point that the circumstances are—

Mr Tehan interjecting—

Not quite, Member for Wannon. He made the point, when talking about the aid budget as a piece of the pie, that aid is such a small piece of the budget pie that we are actually giving the bits of the pie that are stuck to the knife when you cut it. That is what we are dealing with here. Foreign aid does help: it helps us by ensuring that our neighbours are better able to deal with their problems, and that helps us as good neighbours in the region that needs assistance.