Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade I present the committee's second report for the 44th Parliament entitled Partnering for the greater good. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

The inquiry into the role of the private sector in promoting growth and reducing poverty in the Indo-Pacific region coincided with the launch of Australia's new development policy. This provided an opportunity for the committee to consider how to most effectively increase engagement with the private sector, promote gender equity, and refocus Australia's aid efforts to the Indo-Pacific region—our regional neighbours, some of whom have the greatest need globally.

The committee greatly appreciated the comprehensive and constructive nature of the evidence provided. We received over 150 submissions and heard from 84 diverse organisations and individuals at public hearings. The 37 recommendations and supporting commentary in this report will facilitate putting development policy into practice. The report provides an overview of the global aid landscape and examines best practice stakeholder engagement. It highlights the work being done by the private sector, the emergence of social responsibility and cross-collaboration in accelerating the pace of economic growth and reducing poverty, as well as the risks and benefits to the enterprises and the nations concerned. The report also explores the options for financing development to get the best return on investment for Australians and for developing countries within our region.

The private sector is moving ahead, often in partnerships with development agents, to address financing needs. There is growing interest in the social impact investing sector, and, while many countries are establishing development finance institutions, the Australian government has shown what can be done by partnering with Australia's world-class financial institutions. The Australian government should look for ways to continue to support these efforts rather than trying to compete in the already heavily occupied development bank space at this time.

Australia's expertise is very well regarded and in demand. This is an area where we can make a real contribution to promoting economic growth and private sector development across the region. The Australian government's capacity building and winning programs have supported developing country partners to establish effective public services and improve governance to minimise corruption. Australia's volunteer programs have also made a valuable contribution. However, it is time to reflect on these programs to ensure they are supporting businesses to grow. It is the local private sectors that will lift low-income communities, and the men and women within them, out of poverty and provide economic independence.

Supporting the private sector also means addressing infrastructure and social services. Multistakeholder partnerships, public private partnerships, and product development partnerships are demonstrating the benefits of coordinating and consolidating resources to achieve greater good.

But to build successful partnerships takes mutual understanding and respect. There is still some work to be done in this area. We strongly encourage the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to take immediate steps to build its capacity to engage with the private sector in a more meaningful way, both here in Australia and through its overseas representatives. On this basis, the committee has recommended that the department foster expertise in building partnerships, work to shift its culture toward a more positive approach to the private sector, and find ways to increase the number of staff with experience working within the private sector.

Complementing this, DFAT needs to invest in an improved communications strategy, including web-based communication platforms that describe all of the programs and projects in play, as well as the upcoming opportunities for collaboration and partnering. Potential partners should be able to find a pathway with ease; likewise the public is entitled to know where and how Australia's aid funding is being spent. Not only must our taxpayer-funded aid be more transparent; it should be highly visible.

Much more also needs to be done by DFAT to tell the story about the Australian government's aid activities. Australia's aid program needs to be more recognisable and our distinctive Australian identity should be evident across everything we do.

Broader and deeper engagement of the private sector represents an important change to development support in our region. Through innovation and partnerships utilising Australian expertise in the public sector, the private sector and civil society, together we can build a better region.

I commend the report to the Senate.

Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to contribute to the tabling of the report, Partnering for the greater good. Like Senator Gallacher, I also participated in this inquiry and I would like to provide the Senate with my views on some of the recommendations and the way forward. As Senator Gallacher has said, there were some 37 useful recommendations that the committee provided in this report, after a lengthy inquiry process with a number of submitters and a number of hearings, where we heard from various organisations—businesses, government bodies and the like.

The report does find that for aid to be effectively encouraged though from the private sector to assist economic growth and development, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade should establish an effective private sector and philanthropic communication and engagement unit. It is my hope that the government really consider that recommendation and actually consider the department of foreign affairs establishing such a unit. The idea of that unit is to provide a clear pathway for potential partners and for Australia's overseas diplomatic missions to more effectively identify opportunities, support more small business and encourage partnerships, all in the Indo-Pacific region but at that local level.

If you think about who some of those small business partnerships might be, I would imagine that a lot of them would be run by women. I hope the government will look at that recommendation about DFAT establishing this philanthropic communication and engagement unit because there is a real opportunity here for Australia to play a more crucial role in supporting the rights of women in the Indo-Pacific region. In fact, we provide an entire chapter on that issue, in chapter 4, where we talk in a very detailed way about women being empowered through a thriving private sector. There are a number of recommendations in that area.

The report also recommends to the Australian government that it should directly invest in innovation technology across the region and participate in or support joint ventures between the private and public sectors, and wherever possible ensure technology transfer and local contractors are engaged.

Even though I do commend the recommendations in this report—and the Joint Foreign Affairs and Aid Subcommittee has provided decent recommendations here for the government to take-up—unfortunately, I have to highlight that this is all against the backdrop of an incredible cut to our foreign aid budget. I do not want to see this report regarded by government in any way, shape or form as an opportunity for them to relinquish their responsibilities as a government in the foreign affairs portfolio to provide foreign aid and aid and development.

Whilst, yes, the private sector do and can play an ongoing role in providing aid and development in the Indo-Pacific region, and we provide a number of recommendations about how that can occur, it should never do so in a sense to replace the role of government in its own aid and development program. That is the caveat that I put in support of this report, that this government actually lifts up its socks and starts doing what it should do as a strong, democratic country in the region to provide for the aid and development of the Indo-Pacific. Unfortunately, that is not occurring at the moment. We know the government has confiscated some $11 billion from Australia's aid budget, the biggest cut this government has made on record thus far.

Compare that to the United Kingdom. The new high commissioner to the UK recently addressed this very committee

We know that the UK passed a law in March enshrining its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of its gross national income on aid every year, making it the first G7 country to meet the UN's 45-year-old aid spending target. Despite the global financial crisis, the UK has continued to provide its aid and development funding in the world. At the same time as the Australian Prime Minister describes our aid cuts as 'modest'. Australia is in a significantly better economic position than as the UK, yet we are cutting our aid budget by some $11 billion. This means that Australia has an income per person more than 50 per cent higher than that of the UK and has only 20 per cent of the level of government debt that the UK has, yet it provides only one-fifth of the level of aid. That says a lot about the Abbott government's commitment to the Indo-Pacific region.

Whilst I commend the report to the report to the Senate, in relation to the role of the private sector in aid and development, I condemn this government for relinquishing its responsibilities in the aid and development budget to the Indo-Pacific region. I hope it lifts its game and starts to live up to a better reputation than it currently has.