Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We live in a period of unprecedented turmoil. Every day, in dozens of countries, humanitarian crises are unfolding, with millions of people being impacted. Across the globe, 65 million people are displaced from their homes as a result of conflict. According to last year's Global Humanitarian Overview, 134 million people needed humanitarian assistance and protection.

That's why the United Nations has designated 19 August as World Humanitarian Day, a day to remember the devastating human cost of conflict and disaster across the planet and the critical role that humanitarian action plays. It's also a day to pay tribute to humanitarian workers for their incredible contributions. They place themselves in the path of danger, often at great personal risk, in order to help others in need. This year, World Humanitarian Day is particularly focused on celebrating women humanitarian workers. A large number of global humanitarian workers are women. They are amongst the first to respond to and the last to leave a crisis. I am very glad that, this year, they're being recognised for their contribution.

I was privileged enough to see the positive impacts of aid work firsthand when I visited Bangladesh back in November 2017 at the invitation of humanitarian organisations CARE Australia and Oxfam. At that stage, more than 700,000 Rohingya people, mostly women and children, were fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar, and walking en masse across the border into Bangladesh in order to seek protection. This mass exodus from Myanmar, over a very short period of time, saw the rise of some massively overcrowded refugee camps throughout Cox's Bazar. There were thousands of traumatised people living in cramped, makeshift camps stretching out for kilometres—as far as the eye can see—and this was one of the most confronting sights I've ever encountered. The concentration of refugees in Cox's Bazar is amongst the densest in the world. There are more Rohingya people living in Bangladesh than their homeland of Myanmar.

Cox's Bazar also gave me some really unique insights into the work of humanitarian aid workers, which surely must be the most noble of all professions. The women I saw undertaking the work at the women's-only clinics were a really important part of the work being done in Cox's Bazar, ensuring the health and wellbeing of mothers and children. As I said, more than half of the refugee population of Cox's Bazar were, indeed, children. The women aid workers played a role in that really critical time when there was a need for great protection of women and children, who had already been subject to some of the most gross forms of violence that you could imagine. The women were an essential part of ensuring that those services were properly targeted. At that time, when so many people were arriving, the trust of having those women there was absolutely essential.

But none of those efforts could have happened without funding. Last year the United Nations estimated that we needed more than $25 billion across the globe to help more than 100 million people who were in need. The actual amount that was spent was just $15 billion, a shortfall of almost half of what was needed. That means not enough is actually being done. Regretfully, Australia is one of the worst offenders here. In 2008, in his very first speech in this House, the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, praised the government for increasing foreign aid, adding that Australia, 'still must go further'. He went on to condemn the fact that the global aid budget was only a third of what was needed saying:

This leaves a sizeable gap. The need is not diminishing, nor can our support. It is the Australian thing to do.

It's hard to imagine, but this man who spoke with such passion and strength about the importance of aid is the same man who supported more than $11 billion of cuts into Australia's aid budget since the Liberals came to power. Indeed, many of those cuts were at his own hand when he was the Treasurer. And as Prime Minister he oversaw a further $115 million cuts in the last April budget. It is time that those opposite stood up and started acting like a responsible government by reversing some of the damage that they have done by cutting our overseas aid budget.