MEDIA RELEASE

Half time: Australia needs to act to secure Pacific.

Sydney, July 5, 2007. According to the half time progress reports on the Millennium Development Goals, the Pacific region is the least likely, behind sub-Saharan Africa, to meet the poverty challenge.

Signed onto in 2000 by Australian Prime Minister John Howard and 188 other world leaders, the UN Millennium Development Goals are a fifteen year action plan to tackle poverty.

In the Oceania region, known locally as the Pacific, development progress has stalled or is declining, in six of the eighteen categories covering health, education, environment and other development objectives. Eight of the categories are unlikely to be met and only three categories are on target to achieve the development goals.

The report, released at the half way mark of the fifteen-year international plan to tackle poverty, leaves Oceania second only to Sub-Saharan Africa in their likelihood to meet the MDGs.

“This year marks the half-way point in meeting the Millennium Development Goals and as a region we have a responsibility to ensure the Pacific is not left behind in the struggle to eliminate extreme poverty”, said Liz Stone, spokesperson for Caritas Australia.

“Australia as the key development player and the major economy in the Oceania region has a big role to play in ensuring our neighbours in the Pacific meet the Millennium Development Goals”, said Ms Stone.

“We support the plan for a greater emphasis on the Pacific proposed by the ALP in its policy position paper launched today,”

“It’s not just about our Government, although they have an important role to play” said Ms Stone. “We need all Australians; business, the public sector, development agencies and everyday Aussies, to have a deeper commitment to supporting our neighbours”.

“It is shameful that an area as rich as the Pacific in terms of natural resources, ingenuity, culture and people is coming in at the bottom of the international development league table”, said Mr Isbister.

“The Australian aid program needs to focus more on alleviating poverty at the grassroots. The business sector needs to ensure there is long term investment and partnership with our Pacific neighbours. Development agencies need to ensure we are challenging the structures that keep people locked in cycles of poverty and the Australian public needs to spend more time and get to know our neighbours in our own region”, concluded Liz Stone.

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