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

Forty per cent of global maternal deaths occur in the Asia-Pacific region. A woman in Papua New Guinea is 80 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than a woman in Australia. I learnt this morning, talking to the executive director, that 700 mothers die per 100,000 births in Papua New Guinea. That is an appalling indicator. An Indonesian woman is 30 times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in Australia. In our region, 140 million women aged between 15 and 49 do not have access to modern family planning.

Australia's aid, however, is making a difference. I think all Australians can be proud of the fact that, in parts of Indonesia, AusAID support helped reduce maternal deaths by 40 per cent between 2008 and 2011. In Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea, AusAID programs helped halve maternal deaths between 2005 and 2009. (Time expired)