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Make Poverty History declare G20 “much ado about nothing”

The Make Poverty History campaign have declared the G20 a missed opportunity to show international leadership on the issue of global poverty, with co-chair Tim Costello describing the meeting as “much ado about nothing”.

The campaign’s leadership – which is chaired by Costello, World Vision chief executive, and Andrew Hewett, Oxfam’s executive director – have condemned the G-20 for failing the world’s poor on policies on aid, trade, debt and climate change, saying that the only welcome outcome being a commitment to integrate aid efforts through the Paris Declaration.

Costello described the final communique as demonstrating “a failure to understand that if we don’t strike a decisive blow against global poverty we can’t expect to win a war on terror or find a lasting solution to climate change”.

“The G20 has been much ado about nothing,” he said. “They might as well as have stayed at home as brought Melbourne to a halt given the complete lack of leadership that their final communique demonstrates.” 

Hewett said there was “ no cheer for the world’s poor from this meeting”.

“The leaders of the G-20 have forsaken a critical opportunity to strike a decisive blow against poverty and failed to continue the momentum of last year’s G8.

“There is an urgent need for leadership on both sides of the political divide in our efforts to tackle global poverty. We are all being let down by our leaders on this critical issue.” 

Make Poverty History, which have released a statement outlining a policy platform they will be lobbying parties to adopt in the lead-up to next year’s Federal election, have also condemned the violence which occurred in Melbourne over the weekend.

”While a handful of violent protesters saw the G-20 gathering as unwanted – we did not,” Costello said.

“We are appalled by the senseless violence of a minority this weekend which overshadowed many peaceful Make Poverty History events.”

He said Make Poverty History’s “hundreds of thousands” of supporters “believe the most effective way to eradicate extreme global poverty is to work with world economic leaders from both rich and poor countries to find the solutions needed to help end extreme poverty”.

Meanwhile in a statement released following his meeting with Federal Treasurer Peter Costello in the politician’s Melbourne offices on Monday, Bono said the Federal Treasurer seemed to be “personally very interested in the plight of the world’s poor and determined to figure a way for his country to play a more committed role”.

“If the Minister is as serious about increased aid as he is about effective aid then I think the two will combine to transform Australia’s role in the world of engagement with the poorest of the poor,” the internationally acclaimed Irish rockstar and anti-poverty campaigner said.

Bono, who has been in Melbourne over the weekend as part of the supergroup’s Vertigo tour, said he described those who were taking part in the Make Poverty History campaign as the “New Australia’- proud Australians who have told me that at the moment they feel their continent is behaving as an island, they want to be a leader, not a laggard, in facing these great challenges of the age.”

“We talked a lot about the Global Fund, how it is proving itself as a most effective intervention in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria,” he said. “The combination of these three diseases takes 15,000 lives per day. This seemed to be an area that Australia might consider a leadership role in ensuring that it is adequately funded.”

www.makepovertyhistory.com.au

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