Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for his answer but I was actually asking about the funding provided for family planning. Useful though the answer was with regard to the family planning guidelines, which no doubt have some influence over the amount of funding which is provided for family planning, my question to you was: how come—and you are not responsible; I realise this—over the last 12 years family planning funding has dropped from 0.44 per cent to 0.07 per cent? That is a massive cut down to one-sixth of what it was in 1996. So I ask you: will the government deliver on its commitment to the ICPD, by the Keating government in 1994, reaffirmed by the Howard government in 2005, to sexual and reproductive health being at least four per cent—not 0.4 per cent but four per cent—of aid spending? Is the new minister aware that the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development, to which he referred, recommends that this aid be raised to 10 per cent of ODA?