Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 554 standing in my name and the name of Senator Payne.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a)

welcomes the news of recent progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly Goal 1 which seeks a substantial decline in the proportion of people living on less than US$1 a day and Goal 7 which, among other objectives, seeks substantial increases in the proportion of people with access to clean water, are on track to be met globally by 2015;

(b)

notes, with concern, that:

(i)

despite some progress, a number of MDGs are off-track and on current progress will not be met globally by 2015, including Goal 1 on hunger, Goal 2 on primary education, Goal 4 on child mortality, Goal 5 on maternal mortality and Goal 7 on access to sanitation, and

(ii)

in a world of plenty, each year nearly 10 million children die before their 5th birthday and more than 500 000 women lose their lives in pregnancy and childbirth;

(c)

recognises that progress towards the MDGs is being undermined by the global financial crisis, the global food crisis and the slow progress on the Doha trade talks;

(d)

welcomes Australia’s progress towards Goal 8 which aims to create a global partnership for development; and

(e)

calls on the Australian Government to further intensify its efforts and actions towards alleviating global poverty in line with the ideals and aspirations at the heart of the MDGs.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I wholeheartedly welcome and support this motion from Senators Barnett and Payne, welcoming the news of recent progress on the Millennium Development Goals, which are basically to improve the lot of the most poverty stricken people on earth by 2015. However, I cannot allow it to go past without recounting events earlier this decade. When the Earth Summit was held in Johannesburg, the then Howard government made it part of its mission to that summit to pull the rug from under the very targets that we are looking at here. In particular, it ensured that that summit failed to reach any agreement on goals to alleviate the then onrush of climate change, which made all of these goals much more difficult.

It is good that now some good-hearted senators on the coalition opposition benches are moving towards fostering this alleviation of poverty. I only wish this was consistent and it had been part of Howard government policy in 2003, when the then Australian government became a stopper to the globe reaching for these very worthy goals for its poorest citizens.

Question agreed to.