I recently signed this open letter to the Prime Minister, along with many other leaders, ambassadors, actors and so forth around Australia. Read the article “Famous Faces sign up in the battle for overseas aid” in the Sydney Morning Herald here. The article includes a link to the letter below with the many signatories listed below it. (This same article appears in The Age)

You can also listen to my interview on ABC radio from this morning on their website, it’s the 4th audio file, here.

02 May 2012

PRIME MINISTER – AUSTRALIANS KEEP THEIR WORD

Dear Prime Minister,

In the year 2000, Australia agreed to play its part in global efforts to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015. Australians can be proud that, so far, their leaders have kept this promise made in our name.
John Howard promised to double Australian aid in 2005. And the Gillard Government has promised to further lift the levels of Australian aid to 0.5 per cent of our national income by 2015.

This commitment has been supported by both sides of politics, as it should be. This is Australia’s promise to the world’s poor, no matter who is in Government.

Millions of Australians, young and old, expect this commitment to be maintained. And millions more of those living in poverty are depending on it.

This is a question of whether Australia can be trusted to do what it says it will do.

Reaching the 0.5 per cent target means just 50 cents in every $100 of our national income will go towards our aid program. This falls short of the global target of 0.7 per cent, but it still means a lot to the world’s poor.

Keeping this promise on aid could save the lives of at least 800,000 extra people over the next four years.

Around the world more than 20,000 children still die each day because of diseases that can be easily prevented and treated like diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria.

Millions of people live on less than $2 a day in our neighbouring countries like Timor Leste, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The money the Government has promised to spend on aid is desperately needed.

Australian aid levels are not generous by world standards – currently we are below the average when compared to what other rich nations give. We rank 13th on the league table of 23 rich countries that give aid. But what we do give makes a big difference.

Prime Minister, we hear this will be a tough budget and reports say that aid spending is on the hit list. But we cannot balance the books with the lives of the world’s poor.

We the undersigned, and the more than 2 million Australian households who generously support aid organisations each year, urge you to keep the promise to increase aid to 0.5 per cent by 2015-16.

It is up to you to prove that when Australia makes a promise, we keep it.