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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 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.

Bob McMullan, Member for Fraser, Annette Ellis, Member for Canberra, and Senator Kate Lundy today invited ACT residents to participate in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) National Grocery Prices Inquiry when it hold hearings in Canberra next week.

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.

Australia will provide further support to Ethiopia's Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, which treats women with the debilitating condition, obstetric fistula.

Australia will provide food aid to the most vulnerable people in East Timor to improve food security and support longer-term solutions to civil unrest.

The Australian Government’s international aid agency, AusAID, will provide $1 million to the World Food Programme to help meet shortfalls in supplies of rice, beans, oil, sugar, corn and other food staples.

Thank you to everyone who has contacted my office about the apology to the Stolen Generations. I am attaching a press release from the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, with details of the arrangements in and around Parliament House on the day for those of you who wish to attend this important event.

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.

In Canberra, our local Sudanese community has made many important contributions to our community, and have many significant achievements in their own right.

It is extraordinary to have a Minister for Immigration who has nothing positive to say about the vast majority of Australian families of African background who are hard working, law abiding and make a valuable contribution to Australian society.

There is a vibrant and engaged Sudanese community here in the ACT that, in the context of Minister Andrews recent offensive remarks, must be recognised for its contributions to Canberra and our community.

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.

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.

“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.

The Shadow Minister for Federal/State Relations, Bob McMullan, last night told a meeting of the ALP in Canberra that the Government’s Australian Technical Colleges have been an expensive failure.

Mr McMullan said that figures released on the weekend illustrate the worst features of the Howard Government’s failed strategy in this area of federal/state relations.

Elderly ACT residents and their families are being neglected by Federal Government policy on aged care accommodation.

Federal Labor ACT Representatives Senator Kate Lundy, Bob McMullan MP and Annette Ellis MP pointed to the ACT’s unacceptably low Residential Aged Care Provision ratio.

“The ACT has the lowest ratio of all the states and territories,” Senator Lundy observed. “Our ratio is 72.1 beds per 1000 people aged 70 years or older, which falls short of the national average of 85.6, and far below the Federal Government’s own target ratio of 88.”

I want to raise a series of issues this evening concerning a growing trend in the Howard government’s failure to distinguish between the national interest and the Liberal Party’s interests, between public purposes and private purposes and a trend towards confusing public assets and private assets. We have seen it recently with advertising. We have seen it recently with polling. We have seen it recently with fundraising. We are seeing serious allegations raised now with regard to the overlap between the Liberal Party, the government and what was previously seen as being, quite properly, a legitimate business campaign. We are starting to see the first glimpses of it with regard to taxpayer funded dirt units. In the time available, I want to talk mainly about that.

I want to talk this evening about some matters relating to the Public Service. Firstly, and most importantly, I want to talk about politicisation of the Public Service. I have a serious concern that after 11 years we have a government which takes the benefits of office as a right. We have seen it in highly publicised ways in, for example, the outrageous advertising campaigns robbing the taxpayers to fund what should be funded by the Liberal Party. But I want to proceed from that, which I now take as a given fact, to some serious matters concerning the Public Service.

Annette Ellis MP and Bob McMullan MP today jointly called on the Prime Minister to act to reign in petrol prices in the ACT.

Petrol prices are climbing steadily, and are hurting families who were already struggling with their mortgage repayments. These price increases particularly hurt Canberra residents living in Tuggeranong, Gungahlin and West Belconnen.

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

Everyone in this parliament knows that in 2007 we are facing what looks like a very tight election. I am not going to talk about that. We are also going to face a once in a generation opportunity to transform our federation. The question I want to deal with tonight is: will the Prime Minister use this crucial 18-month period during which no state or territory election is due to fundamentally reform the operations of the federation to save the $9 billion which the Business Council of Australia says the current mismanagement of federal-state relations is costing the economy each year?

The Australian Government should propose an assistance package for Indonesia that will make a practical and lasting difference to our neighbour's aviation safety standards.

Last week the political divide was forgotten as Government and Opposition joined together to grieve for the Australians who lost their lives in the crash and extend best wishes to the injured Australian survivors. The Federal Parliament also united in an expression of sympathy to the Indonesian people for their loss of life in the Garuda crash.

The value of Australian assistance was highlighted in the wake of the catastrophe. Australia already has in place an agreement that will enable an Indonesian investigator to train with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for 12 months from the middle of next year.

But we can, and must, do more. Australian assistance must not end at the conclusion of the current crash investigation. In the wake of this tragedy we must do all we reasonably can to prevent future disasters.

The Government must act to stop the world’s second largest killer of children – unclean water.

World Vision reports, “diseases or infections associated with inadequate water supply and sanitation affect almost half the people in the developing world. More than a billion people in the world lack clean water and more than two and a half billion people lack access to improved sanitation.”

But the Government’s commitment to water and sanitation through the Australian aid program is running dry. There is a shortfall between the aid program’s water policy (published in 2003) and practice.

Last year I made a speech in this House outlining my critique of the manner in which the published opinion polls were being reported. I believe subsequent events have borne out the validity of that analysis. This afternoon I want to add a further chapter to the ongoing debate about what the polls tell us. This is not to comment on the recent boost in support for the opposition in the polls—that is much too recent to give any confidence as the basis of analysis. All those polls tell us is that the next election is likely to be close and that the opposition has a chance. Rather, I want to look at an apparently unnoticed long-term trend which has developed over the full 2½ years of this term.

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.

Bob McMullan with recipients of the Australian Defence Medal.

I was in the United Kingdom when Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. The first response from outside Iraq that I saw was Tony Blair expressing his opposition to the death penalty in the following terms:
We’re against the death penalty, whether it is Saddam or anyone else.

Then I heard reports of the EU calling on Iraq not to execute Saddam.

So, imagine my disappointment when I found the Australian government’s position was:
He [Prime Minister Howard] said that while he opposed the use of the death penalty in Australia or against Australians, ‘what other countries do with the death penalty is other countries’ business’.

I regard this position as morally flawed, politically manipulative and against the long term interests of Australia and Australians.

Question Time should be central to the vital process of holding ministers accountable for the discharge
of their important public duties. On most days, however, it is a farce!

Senator Kate Lundy together with Bob McMullan, Member for Fraser, and Annette Ellis, Member for Canberra, will today launch a campaign to make sure Canberrans are correctly enrolled on the ACT electoral roll before changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act commence on December 11. Under the new rules, in the 2004 election 10359 electors could have lost their right to vote in the electorates of Canberra and Fraser.

The current Australian trade crisis has many causes. Therefore, any solution will require a number of elements.

But the first thing is to acknowledge just how bad our trade performance has been. There is no way anyone can find a solution until they acknowledge the need for one.

I join with others in regretting the fact that the time available for all of us to speak on the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006 has been cut so short. I will not waste any of my limited time railing against that—I will allow people to make judgments for themselves. One of the things that strike me about this bill is that it illustrates an emerging feature of the Howard government: the Howard government hates agreement about issues that it might be able to exploit as wedge issues.

I rise, as other opposition members have, not to oppose the Australian Trade Commission Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 but to express my strong reservations about some of the changes that it is making. In the course of that I want to talk broadly about what I think it is a serious trade problem for Australia.

Every weekday morning in my electorate, only a kilometre from here, breakfast is served to the homeless. This particular service has only been operating for a year and has grown from serving breakfast to a handful of people to regularly serving more than 70. Their clients are homeless and, in this weather, many of them are still sleeping rough—sometimes in tents provided by the service in lieu of affordable housing. They stay on after breakfast for counselling and referral. Many of them have complex issues which will need much time and help to resolve. After homelessness, one of the biggest problems seen at this centre is poor dental health—a problem for many other Australians too.

Australia ’s alliance with the United States has always had a different character under Labor governments. The key elements remain the same: policy dialogue; intelligence; access to technology; and the distant possibility of the “security guarantee”.

It was my intention to speak today in the adjournment debate on the issue of discrimination against same-sex couples, based on the experience of a couple in my electorate who also happen to be friends of mine. I hope still to get the opportunity to do that, but I want to speak today about my sense of outrage, as a member of the Australian parliament, as a citizen of Canberra and as an Australian, on hearing that the Attorney-General, Mr Ruddock, is contemplating overriding the ACT civil unions legislation.

I know the Artist’s Resale Rights Bill 2006 will not pass through parliament. It does not have the government’s support and they will not allow it to pass. So why am I moving it? In the first instance, obviously I am moving it because I passionately believe that visual artists in Australia should share in the wealth they generate through their creative efforts. But this bill is also deliberately designed to be a challenge to the Howard government

Bob McMullan, Member for Fraser, has today introduced a private member’s bill, The Artist’s Resale Rights Bill 2006, which is a long overdue recognition of the need to provide resale royalties for visual artists, particularly those from an Indigenous background.

Bob McMullan meeting with residents at a morning tea in Ainslie.

Yesterday’s announcement by Airservices Australia that at least 300 jobs are to be lost in a restructure has come as a surprise to many, including the staff who will be most affected. The 300 jobs represent almost 10% of Airservices Australia’s current work force and it is hard to imagine how a loss of this number would not impact on day-to-day activities.

The public needs to be reassured that the safety of the travelling public will remain a top priority and these proposed cuts will not impinge on this.

The current $20 million advertising campaign in support of the Howard Government's IR proposals is just another example of the gradual corrosive corruption of our political culture. What is so concerning is that so many people who should know better appear unconcerned about this trend.

The first in the Progressive Essays series, Rodney Hall examines current Arts funding, and proposes a new approach.

I want to use tonight’s debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2004-2005 and cognate bills to deal with two issues. First, I want to deal with a local issue, an issue important in my local community: the unnecessary, wasteful and frustrating duplication of planning processes here in the ACT. Second, I want to rebut some allegations that the Deputy Prime Minister has repeated— misleading assertions he has made concerning my views and my activities in the past concerning the use of ethanol in petrol.

There is a long hard road ahead for the federal Labor party to win the 2007 election. But at least yesterday’s caucus decision shows that we are on the road and heading in the right direction at last.

Economic credibility is not something that can be given. It has to be won on the basis of hard decisions. At least this is the case for a party in opposition.

The Coalition’s proposal to establish twenty four new technical colleges in competition with the Australian TAFE network will have a serious and adverse effect on automotive training in Australia.

A Latham Labor Government is committed to ensuring that there is no upward pressure on interest rates by fully funding its spending proposals. A Latham Labor Government is committed to examining every element of Government expenditure to ensure that full value is received and that waste and inefficiency are eliminated. I am today announcing savings measures totalling $448.8 million. These savings will be used to fund Labor’s election promises and will in themselves ensure downward pressure on interest rates to which a Latham Labor Government is committed.

The Howard government has shown once again that it cannot distinguish between what is taxpayers’ money and what should be paid for by the Liberal Party.

The continuing failure of the Howard government to demand cost effective airline travel is starting to bite.