from The Australian A new AusAID report tracks neighboring countries to Australia, on their progress in meeting Millennium Development Goalsby Siobhain RyanA new AusAID report measuring the Pacific's social and economic progress was released in Niue yesterday, where Kevin Rudd signed deals with Samoa and Papua New Guinea during the Pacific Islands Forum.The Prime Minister's promise of fresh support came as AusAID revealed international aid had barely risen per capita in the past decade."The impact of aid on poverty reduction and sustainable development in the region is unclear, as is the impact on individual country capacity," the report stated. "What is clear is that the increased number of donors and activities over the last decade is making co-ordination more difficult."Australia...
from the Melbourne Herald Sun This follows the story of a consumer group in Australia accusing OXFAM's fair trade label as misleading. OXFAM is now defending it's fair trade certification. - KaleFree market think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), has complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that Oxfam has been misleading consumers about the brands helping farmers in developing nations.The IPA today released a letter it received from the ACCC.The letter said the ACCC had conveyed its view to Oxfam that some of its statements contained "absolute claims'', which could be at risk of breaching the Trade Practices Act if the Fairtrade certification process was not 100 per cent reliable.But the letter said the ACCC would not take any action against...
from the Melbourne Herald A consumer watchdog group in Australia has cautioned on the OXFAM fair trade certification. - KaleFree market think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, had complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission saying Oxfam had been misleading consumers about the brands helping farmers in developing nations.Numerous studies showed that fair trade was not helping lift people out of poverty, as claimed by Oxfam, the institute said.The commission, in a letter to the institute, said it recognised some material existed in the marketplace where Oxfam repeated fair trade statements that contained absolute claims.Oxfam had been told such claims left it at risk of contravening the Trade Practices Act, the commission said.The institute says Fairtrade is a...
from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation A leading aid organisation says Australia's current climate change policies will do little to slow rising sea levels, and it has suggested that Australia may have to take in "climate change refugees".The Make Poverty History group today released a report card on Australia's response to climate change at an event in Melbourne.It warns the Federal Government's pursuit of an emissions trading scheme is important, but only part of the solution.The group's James Ensor says Australia must cut emissions to 60 per cent of 1990 levels within 12 years."And by doing so, over time the rapidly developing countries such as China, India and Brazil will have to make commitments around emissions reduction," he said."But they will only have do so if they see...
from the Age by Brendan NicholsonTHOUSANDS of refugees are living in poverty in Australia because of a system that obliges them to pay air fares for family members to follow them here.Research conducted in Victoria for the Refugee Council of Australia says many are suffering from malnutrition and living in overcrowded and stressful conditions as they battle to raise the money for air fares. Some are homeless.The council says up to 7000 of the more than 13,000 refugees who come to Australia under the special humanitarian program are sponsored or "proposed" by someone here who pays their air fare and helps them settle.More come to Victoria than to any other state and most of the proposers are former refugees themselves.The council says that while some proposers receive interest-free loans...
World Refugee Day (WRD) is commemorated annually on June 20th. This year's theme is protection. For more information about World Refugee Day generally, visit UNHCR's special events web page. And here is more information about how UNHCR is using social media to get the word out about this year's WRD.
The UK and Australia each play host to week-long activities that culminate on World Refugee...
"Community-based Asylum Seekers' Use of Primary Health Care Services in Melbourne," eMJA, vol 188, no. 6 (2008): 344-348 [text]
Dominican Republic: Time to Move Forward to Resolve Statelessness (Refugees International, May 2008) [text]
Forced Marriage with the LRA, Uganda (Feinstein International Center, May 2008) [text]
Global Peace Index 2008 [Vision of Humanity, access]
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from The Manila TimesBy Katrice R. Jalbuena, ReporterAustralia has hiked its official assistance funds to the Philippines to P4.4 billion for the 2008 to 2009 fiscal year, the top Australian envoy to Manila said Friday.Canberra’s new aid package for the Philippines, an increase of nearly 9 percent over the previous year, has helped Australia become the country’s number two aid donor next to Japan, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith said.The Australian government also granted P444.6 million for two programs that aim to improve the domestic profitability and export competitiveness of selected vegetables and fruits planted in the southern part of the country.“This is part of a long-standing collaboration of Filipino and Australian researchers in the development and...
Lying under a thick patchwork quilt, breathing in the fresh mountain air, I felt like a true eco-traveler as I listened reverently to a morning medley of nature streaming through my window: the chirping of a cockatoo, the scuffle of a passing lizard, the rustling of leaves ... and then, from the room next door, the shrill, piercing voice of my travel companion shouting, “There’s a huge spider in my duffel bag! Get me out of here!”Dashing into the living room, I found my friend — call him the ultimate urbanite — standing on the couch, staring down at what was, in fact, a fairly large spider crawling across the floor of the cabin. I suspected he was having second thoughts about joining me on this “environmentally friendly” trip — a first for both of us. Before he left New...
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from Island BusinessHelp-out, not hand-out!Dr Satish ChandKevin Rudd, the new Australian Prime Minister, made an official tour of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands mid-last month. If the reception he received in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and its capital Port Moresby is any indication, than this was more than a welcome visit.Just over 100 days in office, PM Rudd has signalled that the close neighbours and developments therein will get their fair share of attention.The PM and Bob McMullan, his parliamentary secretary for development assistance, had announced in the lead-up to the Australian elections of their intentions to use the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to build consensus on future international cooperation.For readers not familiar with the MDGs, suffice to note here...
from WimmeraBy Tim Dornin Child sexual abuse is widespread and reporting rates are low, a report into the sexual abuse of children in state care in South Australia has found.Releasing the results of his three-year inquiry into the abuse of children in state care, former Supreme Court Justice Ted Mullighan said evidence showed abuse occurred in every type of care from the 1940s onward.Mr Mullighan heard from 792 people who said they had been abused and determined 242 of those had been in care at the time.Those in state care made a total of 826 allegations against 922 perpetrators.The inquiry had referred 170 allegations to police involving 434 perpetrators with two suspects already arrested and 13 reported.Mr Mullighan found that abuse occurred in large institutional care, in church...
from the Sydney Morning HeraldJonathan Pearlman Foreign Affairs CorrespondentAUSTRALIA'S 15 neighbours in the Pacific face daunting challenges to overcome alarming levels of poverty and some smaller states have uncertain futures, a report by AusAID says.The report, which looks at social and economic conditions in 14 countries in the Pacific plus East Timor, says the region faces serious challenges including rising sea levels, epidemics of malaria, diabetes and HIV and surging oil prices. But it says long-term growth is possible and areas such as transport and aviation have begun to improve."Many [of the countries] face growing health problems, increasing environmental threats (including climate change), high levels of joblessness and poverty, and population pressures," the report says....
Corporate social responsibility should be seen as a core element in the financial sustainability of every business, not just a chance to sponsor an office netball team for good public relations, says a visiting senior executive of the world's biggest goldmining company.Christine Charles, global group executive of sustainable development with Newmont Mining, said short-term investors often considered corporate social responsibility, known as CSR, as anathema to profitability because a company spent money without any direct returns. But long-term investors recognised it as a sign of intelligent foresight.Ms Charles was addressing a conference on corporate responsibility and sustainability hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Melbourne yesterday.See full...
Some of the billions of dollars to be raised from permits for emissons trading must be used to help low-income earners cope with higher energy costs, the Climate Institute says.Modelling done for the independent body last year suggested the federal government could earn revenue of between $7-20 billion from the scheme it plans to have operating by 2010.The amount is calculated on a range of 2020 emissions reductions targets between zero and 20 per cent. The government is yet to set a 2020 target.See full...
Company directors, rather than governments or executive officers, are responsible for preventing business collapse, says a visiting British corporate governance specialist.Bob Garratt, a company chairman and academic, said weak and ineffective boards failed to prevent the subprime crisis and consequent credit crunch because they had not assessed their political, economic and trade environments.Professor Garratt, who is a founding member of the Commonwealth Association for Corporate Governance, was speaking to a Melbourne audience of 360 board members from leading companies, not-for-profit organisations, unions and the public sector.See full...
Australia's first Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Nick Sherry, is facing an escalation of regulatory reform challenges in corporate governance and disclosure.Sherry recently highlighted the need for more public transparency on executive remuneration and corporate sustainability. Now the ABC Learning Centres episode exposes possible gaps in sharemarket regulation, on disclosure of margin lending arrangements for directors' shareholdings.Delivering an agenda-setting address on Sherry's behalf at last month's Australian Securities and Investment Commission's Summer School, Treasury secretary Dr Ken Henry gave the clearest outline yet of the Rudd Government's pragmatic reform priorities for the business sector. Sherry intends to start with an investigation of how...
Earnings of high carbon-emitting businesses could drop by up to 10% if they do not cut their greenhouse gases before an emissions trading scheme starts, with moderately sized companies such as OneSteel and PaperlinX in the gun.An analysis of large energy, utilities and materials companies on the S&P ASX 200 by research firm RepuTex shows that moderate-to-large companies are most at risk, with the materials sector particularly exposed.Hugh Grossman, RepuTex head of research, said 32% of the top 25 stocks in those three sectors could expect a loss of more than 5% on earnings.See full...
Australia may need to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90% by 2050 as part of a massive global effort to avert the most devastating effects of climate change, the Rudd Government has been warned.In an alarmingly pessimistic assessment of what is happening to the world, Canberra's chief adviser on climate change, Ross Garnaut, has declared that time is running out faster than almost anyone predicted.Releasing his interim report, Professor Garnaut said existing targets for reducing greenhouse emissions may not be enough to save the situation.See full...
This Interim Report seeks to provide a flavour of early findings from the work of the Review, to share ideas on work in progress as a basis for interaction with the Australian community, and to indicate the scope of the work programme through to the completion of the Review. There are some important areas of the Review’s work that are barely touched upon in the Interim Report, which will feature prominently in the final reports.Adaptation to climate change, energy efficiency and the distribution of the costs of climate change across households and regions are amongst the prominent omissions from this presentation.Many views put forward in this Interim Report represent genuinely interim judgements. The Review looks forward to feedback from interested people before formulating...
from ABC Radio AustraliaA commission of inquiry into riots in Solomon Islands in 2006 says urban poverty has played a key role in sparking unrest around the Pacific in recent years.The inquiry is investigating the causes of the political riots that led to widespread arson attacks in the Chinatown business district in the Solomons' capital, Honiara.The chairman of the commission, Brian Brunton, says many Pacific governments are too focused on rural development, and overlooking problems in urban areas."Poverty in urban settlements is a key factor in the underlying causes of rioting and that around the world for the past 20, 30 years, longer - 40 years," he said."Politicians have routinely ignored urban poverty."The 2006 riots in the Solomons were sparked by the election of Snyder Rini, who...
Key Point * An Australian survey has found that good corporate governance practices can deliver real benefits to a business at a reasonable cost.The Changing Roles and Responsibilities of Company Boards and Directors is a report produced by the Centre for Corporate Governance of the University of Technology, Sydney. The report is the result of a three-year study into the changing roles and responsibilities of company boards and directors in the wake of the implementation of CLERP 9 and the Australian Securities Exchange Corporate Governance Principles.This article summarises some of the main points made in the report.The aims of the research included: * Determining what changes in board and director structures and practices were made in response to the new corporate governance...
from The Sydney Morning HeraldAfter 30 years helping poor people realise their dreams David Bussau has received one of Australia's most prestigious awards.Mr Bussau shook hands with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd outside Parliament House in Canberra after being named the Senior Australian of the Year.Mr Bussau has spent much of his working life helping out people in the most dire situations.It all started in the 1970s when he went to Bali to help rebuild rural areas devastated by an earthquake.While there he found that families were still being left in poverty despite the foreign aid being offered and realised poor people wanted jobs so they could start to solve many of their other problems.In Bali Mr Bussau masterminded his solution - offering small business loans to the impoverished as a...
from The AgeTony WrightDEPUTY Prime Minister Julia Gillard is on an ambitious crusade to harness the authority of all Labor Government ministers in a war on poverty.She also plans to tackle loneliness in Australian cities' fast-growing outer suburbs.Ms Gillard said yesterday she wanted to use her ministry of "social inclusion" — part of her super-portfolio that includes education, employment and workplace relations — to help lift the most disadvantaged communities out of their seemingly endless cycles of joblessness, welfare dependency, crime and child neglect.She said it would require a "whole-of-government" approach, with ministers ensuring that each major government decision had a "social inclusion" element.Ms Gillard said she was also determined to draw on the resources and...