Readings
OPINION Do leaders have will to help?- Herald Sun
06/05/2007
GOVERNMENTS of all types have failed to act out of the goodness of their hearts in increasing aid and development assistance, writes Hugh Evans.
So perhaps it's time they acted to do this in Australia's interest.
Investing in increased aid and development overseas would enhance our national security, boost our economy and help achieve our foreign policy objectives. And it may help house, feed and educate millions of people.
If our region fails socially, economically and politically in this respect, it creates resentment towards the developed world, and Australia in particular. East Timorese antipathy towards Australia due to the Timor Gap issue is a case in point.
Aside from providing a breeding ground for future terrorists, an unstable and poverty-stricken region is certain to eventually produce a refugee crisis. And poverty and instability generate civil war and sectarian strife.
By investing in aid and development today, we help prevent the conditions that lead to insecurity for Australia tomorrow. If there is unrest in nearby countries, Australia is bound to respond through costly interventions such as it has in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. If these countries can develop more vibrant and inclusive economies with improved health and education standards, these tensions will subside.
Australia, along with the rest of the developed world, has a role to play. The aid and development dollar is about equipping the developing world with the resources it needs to create a strong trading economy.
Aid and trade in tandem have produced significant results in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. In Vietnam, the number of people living in extreme poverty plummeted from 14.2 per cent to 2.2 per cent in only nine years.
But if greater security for Australia, fewer wars and fewer refugees and increased economic prosperity aren't enough, consider the humanitarian implications of doing nothing.
Half of the world's poor live in our region. In light of this, it is not good enough that Australia provides only 0.3 per cent of GDP to overseas aid and development.
As Tim Costello says: "If Australia doesn't respond to the moral call to help these poor countries, there is a strong argument out of an enlightened self interest." Along with other developed nations, the Australian Government committed to a target of 0.7 per cent of GDP for overseas development assistance. This is not a random number. It is the amount needed to lift the world's poorest of the poor out of extreme poverty.
That is why my organisation, The Oaktree Foundation, will join many others in maintaining pressure on Australia's politicians to meet the targets they have set.
The Make Poverty History Zero Seven Road Trip taking place from July 1-7 is making history. Thousands of Australians from cities, regions and rural Australia will add their voice to the campaign. The who's who of Australian music have lent their support to the cause in so many ways. Together, we will be asking politicians whether they can meet our generation's greatest challenge. For the first time in history, we have a plan to end extreme poverty -- the Millennium Development Goals -- and we have the resources to make it happen. The question I will join hundreds of thousands of Australians in asking is: Does our Government have the will?
HUGH EVANS, 2004 Young Australian of the Year, is founder and director of The Oaktree Foundation and co-ordinator of Make Poverty History Zero Seven
