Church leaders from across denominations in Australia have joined in signing a statement calling all on political parties to meet Australia’s commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
THE STATEMENT
As Christian leaders we call for churches around Australia to pray especially this Sunday for the poor and all working to reduce poverty. We also encourage churches to further reflect on the importance of effective overseas aid as a tool in poverty reduction and in meeting Australia’s commitments to halve extreme poverty and achieve the other Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
We see the continuing suffering of millions of people due to poverty as a moral challenge that must be addressed. We are sure that genuine progress can be made and acknowledge the encouraging news that for the first time, the number of children dying before they reach their 5th birthday has dropped below ten million per year.
Overseas aid should not be a party-political issue and we call on all parties to support overseas aid policies to meet Australia’s commitments to the Millennium Development Goals.
We make this statement in the name of the Triune God, who “upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry… and sustains the fatherless and the widow” and pray decisions of our political leaders will be positive and just and that they will act with wisdom and boldness for the poor.
For a full list of signatories, visit www.micahchallenge.org.au
The eight goals, which were agreed to by almost every country in the world – including Australia – in 2000, include halving extreme poverty, providing universal primary education and significantly reducing the mortality rate of infants under five, all by 2015.
In the statement which was released this week, less than two weeks before Australia heads for the polls, the church leaders said overseas aid was not a partisan matter.
“Overseas aid should not be a party-political issue and we call on all parties to support overseas aid policies to meet Australia’s commitments to the Millennium Development Goals.”
The statement, which was signed by 15 church leaders and members of the Micah Challenge Panel of Reference – a group of 28 prominent Christians ranging from World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello to former Young Australian of the Year Hugh Evans, and Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, also calls for churches around the country to pray especially on Sunday, 18th November, for the poor and those working to reduce poverty and to reflect on the “importance of effective overseas aid as a tool in poverty reduction”.
“We see the continuing suffering of millions of people due to poverty as a moral challenge that must be addressed,” the statement says. “We are sure that genuine progress can be made and acknowledge the encouraging news that for the first time, the number of children dying before they reach their 5th birthday has dropped below 10 million per year.”
Signatories include Rev Gregor Henderson, president of the Uniting Church in Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Archbishop Philip Wilson, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Rev Dr Ross Clifford, president of the Baptist Union of Australia and Rev Robert Benn, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia as well Brian Houston, president of Australian Christian Churches (AOG), Rev Dr Michael Semmler, president of the Lutheran Church of Australia, Archbishop Mor Malatius Malki Malki, of the Syrian Orthodox Church, and Bishop Albert Chiew, of the Chinese Methodist Church.
Amanda Jackson, national coordinator of Micah Challenge Australia, says in an accompanying letter that “it is clear that the issue of global poverty will play a significant part in influencing how many Australians will vote”.
“It was no coincidence that when the Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition leader Kevin Rudd participated in the web cast to churches across the country, one of the first question they were asked related to our country’s spending on overseas aid and our efforts to combat global poverty,” she writes in a reference to last August’s national webcast to churches.
Ms Jackson says that while Australia likes to present itself as a leader in government aid, “we are in fact languishing at 15th out of 22 of the world’s richest nations in our aid giving.”
The Federal Government has announced it will double aid by 2010 to $4 billion – a level which Micah Challenge say will put the level of giving – in terms of percentage of gross national income – back at the same level it was in 1996. Labor, meanwhile, had pledged to boost aid spending to .5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015.
“So far neither the Government nor the Opposition has pledged to boost overseas aid to 0.7 per cent of GNI by 2015 in order to fulfil our international commitments as part of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals – the world’s blueprint to halve global poverty,” Ms Jackson writes.
