Archive for the ‘Development’ Category.
SPEECH TO THE MINING FOR DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
Andrew Leigh MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
Member for Fraser20 May 2013
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Good morning – I’d like to welcome you to the Mining for Development Conference, on behalf of the Australian Government and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Bob Carr.
Continue reading ‘Speech to the Mining for Development Conference’ »
I spoke in parliament today about some terrific Canberrans who’ve spent their time volunteering in developing countries.
International Volunteering, 21 March 2013
On 19 February I held a morning tea for volunteers in my electorate who have worked with various international development programs. They shared their experiences and stories of the rewards, frustrations and challenges of volunteering in a developing country.
Roger Butler worked with the National Narcotics Board in Indonesia and was involved with the health and drug therapeutic community division. An important aspect of the division was to support those undergoing drug rehabilitation programs, including many in and recently released from Indonesian gaols. He worked to reduce the prevalence of HIV and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis with this population.
Continue reading ‘Australian Volunteers for International Development’ »
To mark ‘World Happiness Day’, Sky News invited me to talk about the economic evidence on happiness with presenter Stan Grant. We discussed how you measure happiness, where it can be a useful tool, and why new evidence shows that the “Easterlin Paradox” doesn’t hold up.
I spoke in parliament today about some optimistic and inspiring stories of youth social entrepreneurship and volunteering.
Youth Activism, 14 March 2013
I rise to speak about three examples of inspiring youth activism. This morning it was my pleasure to meet some of the Oaktree Roadtrip youth ambassadors. These are a group of young Australians who are travelling the country aiming to gather 100,000 names of Australians who support the movement to end poverty, a movement that will show public support for increased foreign aid—as this government has been delivering. I particularly enjoyed spending time with the Canberra Roadtrippers, having farewelled them from Canberra only on Saturday at the Australian National University. Since then, they have travelled to Western Sydney, to Eden and to Cooma and they are back hitting the road again tomorrow. They will be part of a great movement to bring an end to extreme poverty.
I spoke in parliament last night about a Greens private member’s motion that would effectively shut down Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs).
Private Member’s Bill – Enterprise Migration Agreements, 12 February 2013
The former New Zealand politician and head of the World Trade Organisation Michael Moore once had a terrific analogy to describe those who would argue for more foreign aid but also argue for less trade and less migration. He said that attitude was the like the attitude of someone who puts money in the collection plate on Sundays but then behaves badly to the disadvantaged for the rest of the week. It is with the same concern that I rise to speak on this bill today. The attitude that says that we ought to increase our foreign aid, that we ought to increase our refugee intake, but that when workers in our region want to come to Australia to improve their skills and send some remittances back we ought to slam the door in their face. That is not an attitude that is consistent with the values that I hold dear.
People in the ACT will soon enjoy a variety of health services in convenient locations, with the first sod turned on the ACT GP Super Clinic ‘hub’ in Bruce today.
Joining Minister Tanya Plibersek, and Chief Minister Katy Gallagher for the first sod-turned on the Bruce GP Super Clinic construction site
Continue reading ‘Work Begins on Canberra’s $15m GP Super Clinic “Hub”’ »
I spoke last night on a bill that will see Australia re-engage with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and started my speech by telling the story of when I used to go along as a high school student in the 1980s to talk international development with my local MP, member for Berowra Phillip Ruddock.
International Fund for Agricultural Development Amendment Bill, 5 February 2013
It is a particular pleasure to follow the member for Berowra in this debate on the International Fund for Agricultural Development Amendment Bill 2012. My first-ever engagement with a federal parliamentarian was when I was a young volunteer for an organisation called Community Aid Abroad, now part of Oxfam. Community Aid Abroad invited us to visit our federal member of parliament, to speak about the importance of foreign aid and why it should be increased. I suspect I was to the left of the member for Berowra even as a whippersnapper but I do remember him being very good to me, giving me at least half an hour of his time, listening through what I am sure were not particularly well-informed comments about foreign aid and providing some genteel responses about his views on the issue. Those meetings do occasionally come back to me now is a federal member of parliament, thinking about the importance of giving time to somebody who has passionate feelings about an issue even if one might know more about that issue than they do. I use this opportunity to thank the member for Berowra, some two decades late, for his generosity in that regard. It made a mark and it continues to shape my dealings with my constituents.
Mr Ruddock: Can I interject and say thank you very much.
In about 12 months, people living in the shaded area will be able to connect to the NBN
This is really exciting for local families and business in the Civic area. In around 12 months’ time, people in Civic will be able to start connecting to the National Broadband Network. The map shows that NBN fibre is being rolled out Civic, Acton and parts of Braddon which will allow more residents access to faster, affordable and more reliable broadband.
The map is another sign that construction of the National Broadband Network is continuing to accelerate, with work now having commenced or been completed to over 784,000 homes and businesses across Australia. The release of this map means that work is starting in this area and over the next few months, we’ll start to see NBN Co workers locally doing the detailed planning and inspection work, and then rolling out the fibre. Within around twelve months, construction of the NBN in Civic will be completed. This means that families and businesses will be able to connect to faster, more reliable broadband services. A standard NBN connection to the home or office is free – and NBN retail services are available for similar prices to what people are paying now, but for a much superior service.
The National Broadband Network is about preparing Australia for the future. It’s about ensuring that our local communities in places like Canberra are not left behind as the world and our local economy changes. From seeing your local doctor from home, to your kids being able to take a specialist class at another school – the NBN will change the way we live, work, and access services. It will lead to a new wave of innovation, and I’m delighted that people in Civic will be among the first to benefit.
My latest Chronicle column is on parenthood.
Wonderous Times With Newborns, The Chronicle, 6 November 2012
Ever wondered why a calf can walk after a few hours, while a baby takes a year to learn the same skill? It turns out that the problem arises from two features of humans – we stand on two legs (which requires a small and bony pelvis), but also have large brains (which are hard to fit through that pelvis). Evolution’s solution to this problem is that all humans are born – in a sense – prematurely. After emerging from the womb, we need more protection from the world than do most other animals.
I’m typing this article one-handed, with a one month old boy asleep in the crook of my left arm. There’s something extraordinary about new life – its beautiful vulnerability and that unique ‘new baby smell’ that disappears all too quickly. Zachary is our third child, and we’ve gotten a few things right this time that we wish we’d done before.
I spoke in parliament yesterday about the ‘Big Bang Ballers’ program, working with disadvantaged youth in Australia and overseas.
Big Bang Ballers, 16 August 2012
Last Saturday night it was my pleasure to attend the Gunners versus Bandits game at the ACT Basketball Centre, part of the South East Australian Basketball League competition. I was invited there as a guest of Tony Jackson, the CEO of Basketball ACT, because it was a special evening with all proceeds going to the Big Bang Ballers campaign to use basketball to fight youth poverty and social disadvantage around the world. In Afghanistan the Big Bang Ballers are currently providing basketball courts to young Afghani girls who until recently could not even consider sport, let alone play it.
I spoke in parliament this morning on a private member’s motion moved by Rob Oakeshott on debt forgiveness for developing nations, and the role of ‘vulture funds’.
Debt and Vulture Funds
25 June 2012Debt is not the most serious issue that developing countries face, but unsustainable debt burdens can, in certain cases, be a barrier to development. So the HIPC Initiative was launched in 1996 by the IMF and the World Bank, and its aim is to ensure that no poor country faces a debt burden that it cannot manage.
I moved a private member’s motion in the House of Representatives today on the strength of the Australian economy, and the need to approach economic debates with facts rather than fear (avoiding phobophobia).
A Strong Australian Economy
18 June 2012I move: That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) by historical standards, unemployment, inflation and interest rates are at very low levels;
(b) for the first time in Australian history, Australia has a AAA rating from all three major credit rating agencies;
(c) Australia’s debt levels, despite the hit to revenues from the global financial crisis, are around one tenth the level of major advanced economies;
(d) OECD Economic Outlook 91 confirms that the Australian economy will significantly outperform OECD economies as a whole over this year and next; and
(e) the IMF has said of Australia: ‘we welcome the authorities’ commitment to return to a budget surplus by 2012-13 to rebuild fiscal buffers, putting Commonwealth government finances in a stronger position’; and
(2) calls upon all Members to approach economic debates with facts rather than fear, and to put the national interest first when discussing the strong Australian economy.Economic reform in Australia has never been easy. In the postwar decades, the conservatives built up a tariff wall that helped make Australian industry uncompetitive and kept consumer prices high. In 1973, Gough Whitlam began the long process of breaking down Australia’s tariff walls—the 25 per cent across-the-board tariff cuts.
Continue reading ‘Putting Facts Before Fear in Economic Debates’ »
In the latest issue of Labor Voice, I argue that progressives should like economic growth. Full text over the fold.
The Pro-Growth Progressive: How Economic Reform Can Make Us Happier, Labor Voice, Issue 3, 2012
Andrew Leigh
As Australians, we’re used to economic growth [1]. It’s the benchmark by which governments are often judged. Yet it is easy to forget how unusual growth is in human history.
Go back a few centuries to the Victorian era and the average person was no better off than the average caveman [2]. There were a lucky few who enjoyed tea in china cups, but the true living standards of 1800 were better captured by Charles Dickens than Jane Austen.
Indeed, economic historian Greg Clark makes the point that on some measures, the vast mass of the world’s population were worse off in 1800 than their ancestors of 100,000BC. For example, Britons in the Victorian era were shorter – reflecting their poor diet and exposure to disease in childhood.
In 1800, life expectancy was around 30-35 years, pretty much what it was on the savannah. Citizens of 1800 probably worked longer hours than cavemen. From the Stone Age to the Renaissance, most people ate around 2000 calories a day, compared to the 3000 calories a day that we consume.
In a short program on the ABC’s Radio Australia network, I spoke about foreign aid with Girish Sawlani. Here’s a podcast.
Senator Lisa Singh and I have an opinion piece in today’s Canberra Times on the implications of the rise of Asia for Australia. The full text is over the fold. It’s based on our submission to Ken Henry’s Asian Century white paper.
The Asian Century Beckons, Canberra Times, 25 April 2012
In the 21st century, we can confidently predict two trends. First, Australia will become more ethnically diverse. And second, we will become more enmeshed with Asia. The next generation of Australians will be more likely to have been born in Asia, travelled to Asia, worked in Asia, or married someone from Asia.
On Sky AM Agenda today, I spoke with presenter Kieran Gilbert and my regular counterpart Kelly O’Dwyer about public service jobs, the value of foreign aid, and the importance of the presumption of innocence in our legal system.
I had the pleasure of farewelling the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development in the foyer of the High Court of Australia on Wednesday night. Here’s an audio file of my speech.
I spoke in parliament last night about the Centenary of Canberra in 2013.
Centenary of Canberra
20 March 2012One hundred years ago Walter Burley Griffin said that he wanted to design a city for a nation of ‘bold democrats’. On 12 March 2013 Canberra will celebrate its centenary, a celebration that all Australians can be proud of. Tonight I want to speak about two exciting aspects of Canberra’s centenary. The first is the opportunity to speak in greater depth about what our history means and where it has been going. It is my pleasure this evening to engage in one aspect of this—a forum hosted by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects entitled ‘Sex in the city’ in which noted architecture writer Elizabeth Farrelly presented her views on gender and urban development. I would like to thank Paul Costigan, Diane Firth, my fellow commentator, Gary Rake, and many others for an important discussion about where a great Australian city is to go. Better understanding your own city is the first step towards improving it.
Pat Boldra from Friends of Plan Australia has asked me to let you know about their charity art and craft show, which I’m happy to do… even though it’s a smidgin south of the electorate.
Our charity art and craft show which will be held at the Weston Creek Community Hall on 25th-27th November? Each year the Friends of Plan Canberra group selects a Plan overseas aid project to support with all funds raised from our efforts. So far we have raised over $2,500 this year towards clean water and improved sanitation in East Timor and we are well on the way to raising another $2,000 from the art and craft show and raffle of paintings donated by a local artist, Eleanor Inns. The Ambassador for East Timor, His Excellency Abel Guterres, has agreed to open the show at 6pm on Friday 25th November and the raffle for Eleanor’s paintings will be drawn at 3pm on the last day of the show, Sunday 27th. In-between we will have on sale art and craft by local people in support of the project, much of it ideal as Christmas gifts.
I’m holding a foreign aid forum in the Griffin Centre at 12.30pm today (details). In that spirit, here’s a column I wrote recently for the local Chronicle newspaper.
I spoke last night to the fundraising dinner of the Australian Orangutan Project.
Continue reading ‘Speech to the Australian Orangutan Project’ »
One of my passions in politics is getting foreign aid right. It’s an exciting time to be thinking about our overseas development assistance, with the government ramping up our aid contribution to 0.5% of GNI, and Australia having recently made major contributions to vaccinations through Gavi and the recent announcement of $50 million to eliminate polio.
To talk through some of these issues, I’m holding a foreign aid forum in Civic next Tuesday lunchtime. I hope you can make it.
Details, details…
Fraser Foreign Aid Forum
Tuesday 15 November
Griffin Centre, Genge St
Canberra City
12:30-1:30pm
Please RSVP to andrew.leigh.mp {AT} aph.gov.au or 6247 4396.
I spoke with Norman Swan on the ABC Radio National Health Report program this morning about polio, and the strange economics of disease eradication. Here’s a podcast. Transcript over the fold.
Success has many parents, but having moved a private members’ motion in parliament a few months ago asking for CHOGM to focus on polio, I’m chuffed to see the PM today announcing $50 million to eradicate the disease in the four countries where it remains endemic: Afghanistan, Nigeria, India and Pakistan.
Getting rid of the final few cases will take ingenuity. In a speech earlier this year, I quoted former Economist journalist Robert Guest, writing in 2004:
‘Somalia has no government, unless you count a “transitional” one that controls a few streets in the capital, Mogadishu, and a short stretch of coastline. The rest of the country is divided into warring fiefdoms. Warlords extract protection money from anyone who has money to extract. Clans, sub-clans, and sub-sub-clans pursue bloody vendettas against each other, often fighting over grudges that pre-date the colonial period. Few children learn to read, but practically all self-respecting young men carry submachine-guns.
‘I was at one of the country’s countless road blocks, on a sandy road outside Baidoa, a southern town of shell-blasted stone walls and sandy streets. The local warlord’s men were waving their Kalishnikovs at approaching trucks, forcing them to stop. Many of the trucks carried passengers perched atop the cargoes of logs or oil drums. The men with guns then ordered all the children under five to dismount and herded them into the shade of a nearby tree. There, they handed them over to strangers with clipboards, who squeezed open their mouths and fed each one a single drop of polio vaccine.’
Robert Guest is describing vaccination work carried out by the World Health Organisation, which decided that working with local warlords to distribute polio vaccine was the lesser of two evils.
On Wednesday, I spoke in parliament about the terrific Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development program (if you want to be an AYAD, click here).
Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development
12 October 2011On 28 September I had the pleasure of farewelling the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was the second time I have done this, and it was an honour I greatly enjoyed. By coincidence, that morning I had opened the Thailand Update conference, the 21st conference of its kind, run by Peter Warr. It is a conference that aims to deepen academic relations between Australia and Thailand.
Among the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development were people going to Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. I was there with the Cambodian ambassador Mr. Chum Sounry and both of us were impressed by the high calibre of people going overseas. I told the youth ambassadors about the late Herb Feith, Australia’s first international volunteer, and the extraordinary role he played in taking the best of Australia to the developing countries that surround us.
I spoke in Parliament on Wednesday about the ACT Telstra Business Women’s Awards.
Telstra Business Women’s Awards
12 October 2011I was recently privileged to attend the Telstra Business Women’s Awards, which recognise outstanding women and their contribution to the business community. Past winners include some of Australia’s most talented business leaders, whose career paths and individual achievements continue to inspire businesspeople around the country. It is often tough being a woman in business or in other leadership roles. In her book Delusions of Gender, Cordelia Fine tells the story of botanist Jeanne Baret and mathematician Sophie Germain, who around the turn of the 19th century were forced to pretend to be men in order to excel in the world of science. Thankfully, those kinds of games are no longer necessary. But it is still true that it is tougher to be a woman in business than it is to be a man.
A few articles that have caught my fancy over recent weeks.
I spoke in parliament today about this week’s report of the High-Level Independent Panel into the Global Fund’s financial controls.
Global Fund Independent Panel
21 September 2011Established a decade ago, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has spent US$22 billion and saved six million lives. The Global Fund accounts for two-thirds of global spending on tuberculosis and malaria and one-fifth of global public spending on HIV and AIDS. These diseases are a real threat to Australia, as we saw with the recent outbreak of tuberculosis in the Torres Strait. In June I represented Australia at the Global Fund Partnership Forum in São Paulo, Brazil, where we discussed strategies and heard firsthand from some of the people who have benefited from Global Fund work.
I moved a motion in Parliament yesterday on eradicating polio.
Polio Eradication, 22 August 2011
As an economics professor at the Australian National University, one of the people I admired most was Bob Gregory, one of Australia’s most creative minds. As well as being a great thinker, Bob is also one of the last people in Australia to contract polio. In an interview with William Coleman he talks about what happened in 1953, when he contracted polio at age 14. Bob said:
I was proud tonight to launch Jemma Purdey’s fine biography of the late Herb Feith. We had around 120 people in the Main Committee Room at Parliament House, which was testament to the number of people Herb’s life touched.
Book Launch of Jemma Purdey, From Vienna to Yogyakarta: The Life of Herb Feith
Andrew Leigh MP
Parliament House
6 July 2011I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today, and thanking those who have worked hard to organise today, particularly Louise Crossman and Nik Feith Tan.
Jemmy Purdey, family and friends of Herb, internationalists all – thank you for coming today to celebrate Herb’s life and Jemma’s fine book.
Let me begin with a story.
Continue reading ‘Launching Jemma Purdey’s biography of Herb Feith’ »
