Mr GARRETT (Kingsford Smith) (9.09 p.m.)—I rise to support a very good initiative, Make Indigenous Poverty History, which I want to make reference to, as will other speakers, in the House this evening. It is clearly an idea and a campaign whose time has surely come. The template for Make Indigenous Poverty History would probably be familiar to people, because it is the Make Poverty History campaign itself—one of the most positive undertakings of recent times which has seen churches, community groups, citizens groups and, ultimately, nations apply themselves through the United Nations to identify a way in which the scourge of poverty can finally be banished from the world stage. As the member for Kingsford Smith, which includes the Aboriginal community of La Perouse, the one aspect of this initiative that I think is particularly telling is that it will apply and can be applied to Indigenous communities in all parts of Australia.

If we cast a line out and say we are fair dinkum about addressing poverty, and if we accept that current and past measures have been less than effective, then with the Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign a way has arrived to address the scourge of poverty that is inflicted upon people in this country. At the core of the Make Poverty History campaign was to be a set of clearly enunciated goals which nation states within the international community committed themselves to and which provided the necessary ingredients to make poverty history. These goals included eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; improving maternal health—measured as reducing the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters; and ensuring environmental sustainability, including reversing the loss of environmental resources. The Millennium Development Goals were championed by the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and addressed in the United Nations when they met just recently. I think they provide us with not only a template but quite a visionary course of measurable action to address the issue of global poverty.

Make Indigenous Poverty History is taking up that template for Australians who find themselves in a state of impoverishment that is equal to or, in some cases, worse than those in the developing countries that the Make Poverty History campaign was intended to work with and assist. Whilst there continues to be much to inspire us in Indigenous communities and in the contribution that many individuals and organisations do achieve, showing excellence in their fields, as we know only too well in this House it is still regrettably a fact that Indigenous disadvantage is well identified and acknowledged. The recent report Overcoming indigenous disadvantage 2005 presents an up-to-date, necessarily and I think regrettably sorry set of statistics.

We know that the statistics are there. We know that the situation that our Indigenous people face is difficult. There is a debate, but I think with a renewed source of urgency we can address it. One of the most meaningful ways is to set goals. The Millennium Development Goals now can be set for the Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign as a means by which we measure our progress to those ends. With Make Indigenous Poverty History, you do not sign a petition; you sign a pole with a charter. A pole has some meaning in Indigenous culture, and the charter outlines both acknowledgment and memory of what has happened, who has gone before and that ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia continue to suffer injustice’.

Once people sign the pole and commit to the Millennium Development Goals that are now to be applied specifically to Aboriginal people, we would have from people and governments a commitment to, for example, identifying achievable poverty reduction strategies with measurable and time-bound outcomes to be achieved by 2015. That is only 10 years from now, but by that time some of us will have passed from the parliament. But, given that the pledge is to take personal responsibility and to hold elected representatives accountable, it is fitting we should take note of this campaign in the House this evening. (Time expired)