Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

This country is one of the poorest in the world. As I said, only half of all children will actually complete primary school. That means a lot of them are not going to be in a position to absorb messages about personal health, family planning, business development or the management of farms. Also, 70,000 children under five will die each year from largely preventable causes. Around 10 per cent of children under five are severely malnourished.

With the doubling of our aid program, as I said, from $48 million this year to $100 million by 2015, we will help around one million children to gain better access to education by providing essential school supplies, teacher training and food aid to schools in remote areas. I visited one school where, I can report with pride, the teachers were trained by Australia and the blackboards and textbooks were provided by Australia. (Time expired)