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The 2008-09 Budget lays the foundation for implementing the Government’s long-term commitment to increase Australia’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015-16.

Australia will provide an estimated $3.7 billion in ODA in 2008-09, increasing Australia’s ratio of ODA to GNI from 0.30 per cent in 2007-08 to 0.32 per cent in 2008-09. The Government expects to increase Australia’s ODA to levels equivalent to 0.35 per cent of GNI in 2009-10, 0.37 per cent of GNI in 2010-11 and 0.38 per cent of GNI in 2011-12.

Australia will help increase youth employment in East Timor.

A $24 million four-year program is helping to create short-term employment opportunities and establish vocational education and training benefiting up to 70,000 young people.

I will visit East Timor from 7 to 11 May, 2008. It will be my first visit to East Timor as Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.

During my visit I will call on President HE Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta and meet with Prime Minister Mr Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao and other Ministers and senior officials in the Government of Timor Leste to discuss the Australian development cooperation program.

I am pleased to announce funding of a new agricultural research project that will help increase wheat and maize production in Afghanistan, as part of Australia’s commitment to rebuilding food security, income generation and rural employment opportunities.

To achieve this, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and AusAID are providing $1.5 million funding over four years in partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.

The refurbished Papua New Guinea National Library will be officially opened by Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance today, 30 years after its official opening in 1978.

The Hon Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, will today open Survivors, a photographic exhibition detailing the impact of landmines on survivors in Cambodia.

A range of Australian organisations will open their doors to current and future regional leaders after securing funding under Round 2 of the Australian Leadership Awards -Fellowships program.

Australia will help the Philippines to ensure public schools reach and maintain higher standards of basic education and increase young Filipinos’ access to education.

We will provide a $41 million development assistance grant over four years (2007 –2011) through a World Bank trust fund in support of the Government of the Philippines’ basic education reforms.

The Australian Government will establish stronger alliances with a range of domestic, regional and international partners to improve the quality and effectiveness of health sector development assistance in the Asia-Pacific region.

We will provide up to $24 million over four years to establish Health Knowledge Hubs with the Nossal Institute; the University of New South Wales; the University of Queensland; and the Centre for International Child Health, Menzies School of Health Research and the Burnet Institute.

On the eve of United Nations World Health Day (7 April), the Australian Government has reaffirmed its commitment to improving sanitation services in the Asia-Pacific region.

Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, said improving access to clean water and sanitation services is crucial to raising the health and living standards of people in the Asia Pacific.

The private sector in Cambodia can now bid for Australian Government-funded grants for projects that lift people out of poverty.

The Enterprise Challenge Fund for the Pacific and South East Asia provides grants of up to $1.5 million for developing successful business ideas which improve livelihoods, incomes and access to vital goods and services in Cambodia.

Australia will contribute $570,000 to support voter education and civic participation in the lead up to the Cambodia National Assembly election this year.

Australia will provide further support to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia which have been established to prosecute those leaders most responsible for crimes against humanity during the Khmer Rouge period.

Australia is working with Mekong countries to address the impacts of climate change.

The Australian Government is providing $450,000 to support a climate change partnership between the CSIRO and the Mekong River Commission (MRC).

I will visit Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 1 to 4 April, to attend the “Phnom Penh Dialogue 2008 on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace and Harmony.”

The Australian Government is partnering with business to fight poverty in our region.

The Government will provide $400,000 to Business for Millennium Development to encourage business to address poverty in developing countries in the Asia Pacific.

I am pleased to release the first Annual Review of Development Effectiveness.
The Rudd Government came to office with a commitment not only to increase Australia’s overseas aid, in line with the growing contributions of other developed nations, but also to make it more effective.

The Australian Government will provide grants to community groups, non-government organisations and national human rights institutions in developing countries to help promote and protect human rights.

The Australian Government, through AusAID, will provide $2 million in humanitarian assistance to flood victims in southern Africa.

Australia will provide an additional $2 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) for food aid to meet an urgent and growing need for humanitarian assistance in Zimbabwe.

Australians are being reminded that tuberculosis remains a significant global problem.

The Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, today officially opened an exhibition focusing on the lives of people living with TB.

Australia will provide $5 million for food aid to Afghanistan through our international development assistance agency, AusAID, to help address severe food shortages affecting more than 2.5 million Afghans.

As a first step in the long process of improving the quality and effectiveness of Australia’s overseas aid, the Australian Government is implementing an enhanced three-year Development Research Strategy.

“It is not good enough to just increase the quantity of aid, although that is very important, we must increase the quality of the aid as well,” said Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.

“Therefore, the Australian Government will provide $8.8 million for 27 new Australian Development Research Awards.

“Good research leads to a more effective aid program.

“The research will provide decision-makers with practical solutions to the most difficult development challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Mr McMullan announced the strategy and the Development Research Awards at an international development conference in Brisbane.

Kevin Rudd said Australia should be a world leader in the fight against global poverty in his campaign launch speech – Mr Howard did not even mention it.

It is clear that only Labor is genuinely committed to making poverty history.

Labor welcomes yesterday’s Make Poverty History’s SMS and email campaign, in which all the leading agencies are calling on Australians to make aid an issue at the election next week.

Make Poverty History’s report card has highlighted the relative strengths of Federal Labor’s aid policy, and articulated the numerous areas where Australia’s aid is currently falling short of decent international standards.

The need for more assistance to fight treatable or preventable blindness was highlighted in last night’s “7:30 Report” on the ABC.

Dr Nitin Verma is to be commended on the invaluable work he is carrying out, restoring vision to hundreds of thousands East Timorese people.

According to the ABC, Australia’s official contribution will end this year. Dr Verma says the real need is for the training of eye care personnel.

On World Sight Day earlier this month (11 Oct 07) Federal Labor announced our plan to Fight Avoidable Blindness in the Region, as part of a broader policy on disability in development.

After 11 years of inactivity, and after Federal Labor’s announcement, the Howard Government followed suit and made an announcement on blindness and disability.

While the decision was 11 years late, it is nevertheless more than welcome.

Federal Labor's Overseas Aid spokesperson, Mr Bob McMullan today said he was deeply disappointed that Federal Howard Minister, Mr Tony Abbott had criticised World Vision chief Tim Costello for his support for Federal Labor's foreign aid policy.

A Rudd Labor government will take the lead on water and sanitation for developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Unclean water and poor sanitation are the world’s second biggest killers of children, needlessly killing 1.8 million children every year.

An incoming Rudd Labor government will allocate an additional $100 million from Australia’s international aid budget in 2009/10 and an additional $200 million in 2010/11 to assist our neighbours meet a basic human need – access to clean water and sanitation.

After 11 years of inactivity, 5 weeks before the election, and one week after Federal Labor’s announcement, the Howard Government is finally coming on board to realise the importance of assisting people with disabilities in developing countries.

Not to be churlish, while the decision is 11 years late, it is nevertheless more than welcome.

It now guarantees that whoever is elected, the long neglected issues facing the poorest of the poor in developing countries - people with disabilities - will move to the centre of Australia’s aid program as they should have more than a decade ago.

Australia needs to do more to make poverty history.

Federal Labor believes Australia should be a leader in the fight against poverty.

In July this year, Kevin Rudd made the historic announcement to lift Australia’s international development assistance performance to hit the intermediate UN target of 0.5 per cent Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015.

This would be an important step in the right direction towards Australian doing its fair share of the work (particularly here in our own immediate region) to truly make poverty history.

Up to 75% of blindness is treatable or preventable, yet more than half of the world’s vision impaired live on Australia’s doorstep in Asia and the Pacific.

A Rudd Labor government will lead efforts to give sight to the poorest of the poor in our region, and will provide up to $22.5 million each year for two years to:
• Address eye health and vision care needs in our neighbouring countries in the Pacific using existing health system infrastructure.
• Identify and plan to expand into selected priority countries in South-East Asia.

As part of this plan, a Rudd Labor government will undertake a pilot program in the South Pacific and priority countries in South East Asia, establishing at least 10 Vision Centres and at least one Service Centre as well as providing support to the Pacific Eye Institute and training crucial eye and vision personnel.

Download the policy here.

Federal Labor welcomes the Government’s announced humanitarian assistance to Burma.

Scores of Burmese are still being arrested, as the country’s military continues its crackdown following last week’s protests.

Therefore, Australia needs to maintain its active assistance to the people of Burma.

The Howard Government has missed an important opportunity to join an international development initiative which breaks new ground in financing the fight against the world’s three most dangerous infectious diseases.

Yesterday the German and Indonesian governments signed an agreement to cancel a proportion of Indonesia’s debt on the condition that Indonesia invests half of the freed up money into national health programs.

Federal Labor welcomes reports of a partnership between Australia and Indonesia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as part of the Global Initiative on Forests and Climate which was announced in March 2007.

Tackling this challenge is a useful and cost effective way to reduce the 20-25 per cent contribution of deforestation and other land use changes to global emissions.

The Government should build on this weekend’s positive announcement by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and arguing for avoided deforestation to be included in global climate change commitments beyond 2012.

Kevin Andrews’ wild allegations about unskilled workers “flooding into Australia” are a desperate attempt to divert attention from his own government’s failings.

To reiterate what was said and reported, a labour mobility scheme is impossible under current workplace legislation, as the necessary protection mechanisms for vulnerable workers are not present.

The Make Poverty History report card reported today illustrates the stark difference between the alternative governments, when it comes to the campaign to making poverty history.

In comparing the aid policies of the major political parties, the report card has highlighted the relative strengths of Federal Labor’s aid policy, and articulated the numerous areas where Australia’s aid is currently falling short of decent international standards, under the Howard Government.

The Howard Government has the wrong priority in its campaign to improve governance in neighbouring countries through the Australian aid program.

The Shadow Minister for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, outlined to an aid forum in Queensland last night the need for a changed focus in Australia’s aid budget

The Government’s announced $6.5 million for global climate challenges is pathetic.

It is a wonder that the Minister for Foreign Affairs even bothered to put out a media release to announce such a paltry amount. He should be embarrassed to have called a press conference for so little.

Climate change is an especially real threat to the world’s poor. They are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the least able to adapt to these changes.

An incoming Rudd Labor government would work with the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) to address urbanisation of the poor as part of Australia’s international development assistance.

The United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of World Population 2007 report marked the first time in history when half of the world’s population will be living in cities.

A Rudd Labor Government will commit $150 million from Australia’s international aid budget to assist our neighbours prepare for and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Experts warn that the impact of climate change, particularly through rising sea levels, could lead to the submergence of tiny atolls and the inundation of low lying land – and that by 2050 up to 150 million people may be displaced.

Federal Labor welcomes reports that the Howard Government is heeding Labor’s advice and increasing support to combat HIV/AIDS in our region.

An increase in funding to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region is welcomed, but we await the details of the spending profile.

“The United Nations First Annual Report Card exposes the inadequacies of the Howard Government’s 11 year record on international development assistance”, said Shadow Minister for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, speaking at the launch of the report today.

Alexander Downer must come clean on the dirty deal he struck during his visit to Nauru this week.

The Howard Government has historically been very secretive about the money it provides to Nauru and which it disguises as aid funding.

“Peter Costello yesterday on Insiders showed a smug complacency about the Government’s inadequate performance in the fight against global poverty”, said Bob McMullan.

Click here to read Kevin Rudd's speech to the Lowy Institute

The Leader of the Opposition’s speech to the Lowy Institute today is historic.

It establishes for the first time in Australia’s history a commitment to lift Australia’s international development assistance performance to hit the intermediate UN target of 0.5 per cent Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015.

This is also an important step in the right direction towards Australian doing its fair share of the work (particularly here in our own immediate region) to truly make poverty history.

The UNFPA’s State of world population 2007 report launched today is significant, marking the first time in history when half of the world’s population will be living in cities.

The changing demography of poverty is having a significant impact on international development assistance.

Federal Labor’s new policy proposal on aid to Indonesia could radically change the lives of thousands of poor Indonesians fighting deadly diseases.

A Rudd Labor Government will offer to swap $75 million of Indonesia’s debt to Australia for Indonesian health programs to fight Tuberculosis (TB).

Under the Debt2Health agreement of the Global Fund to fight AIDs, TB and Malaria (GFATM), Australia would be prepared to forgive a portion of the debt owed from Indonesia, with half of this money to be invested in health programs focussing on TB.

Comments made by HIV/AIDs Ambassador in Senate inquiries yesterday have raised concerns that the Howard Government may have underestimated the HIV/AIDs problem in PNG.

While I welcome the work of AusAID’s HIV/AIDs program, the limited increase in new funds for HIV/AIDs programs in this year’s aid budget was a disappointment.

Australians will be extremely disappointed. Australians are very generous with their own money to fight global poverty and they’ll be extremely disappointed to hear that the money they thought the Government was using for that is actually being used to fund the Government’s tricky political exercises.

The debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2007-2008 and cognate bills gives me an opportunity tonight to speak on three matters of my shadow portfolio: firstly, my constituents in the ACT; secondly, federal-state relations; and, thirdly, international development assistance.

On the face of it, Labor welcomes the modest improvement to the aid program announced in the 2007 Budget.

Although the broadcast improvements are not as significant as the Government would like the aid community to believe, we welcome even a slight improvement to the lagging Australian aid program.

Transcript of radio interview with Radio Australia's "Pacific Beat" program

Federal Labor has called on the Howard Government to explain why it gives priority to the funding of detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island in the overseas aid budget.

And it also called for a new direction in overseas aid and focus on the South Pacific taking into account the emergency of “climate change refugees” from struggling atolls affected by increased ocean levels.

Labor welcomes the Business for Poverty Relief report released today urging businesses to take an active role in reducing poverty in our region.

At the launch of the Business for Poverty Relief Alliance in Melbourne today, Paul Gardner (Grey Global Group Australia) highlighted the inadequacy of the Australian Government’s contribution to overseas aid in contrast to other countries and called for a significant increase.

I welcome the Australian Government decision to provide $150,000 to help survivors of the worst flood in Jakarta for 10 years.

As a developed country in the Australia-Pacific region, Australia should always be ready to respond to our neighbours in need.

Natural disasters such as this flooding have the capacity to rapidly escalate into a national crisis. We should continue to monitor the situation and respond appropriately.

If the situation deteriorates the Australian Government should stand ready to provide further assistance if it is required.

Labor supports in principle the Government’s announcement that it will be suspending some forms of aid to Fiji because of the military coup.