Peter Garrett MP
Member for Kingsford Smith
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts
Bob Sercombe MP
Member for Maribyrnong
Shadow Minister for Overseas Aid and Pacific Island Affairs

Today in private Members’ business I moved a motion, seconded by Shadow Minister for Overseas Aid and Pacific Island Affairs Bob Sercombe, in the House calling on the Howard Government to increase the proportion of aid money allocated to Microcredit programs.

The provision of Microcredit – small business loans to help start or expand small businesses – has proven to be particularly effective in enabling the very poor, estimated at around 1.2 billion people worldwide, to lift themselves out of poverty.

At present Australia provides a paltry 0.6 per cent of its aid budget for Microcredit programs compared to the United States figure of 1.25 per cent which Australia at the very least should match.

In the federal aid budget no estimates have been provided for the level of future funding for Microcredit in the financial year 2006/07 despite these programs being identified as the best tool we have to reduce poverty amongst the very poor.

This motion comes at a time of considerable public support from Australians for the Make Poverty History campaign and follows the 2005 United Nations International Year of Microcredit.

Opposition and government members spoke in support of the motion; the former Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Bruce Billson is on the record as saying that it is "an important part of Australia’s aid program”.

Such a modest increase would greatly improve the chances of reaching the target set by the Millennium Development Goals to halve the number of people living on less than US $ 1 a day by 2015.

Microcredit programs work but they need genuine government support.

Contact:
Andrew Palfreyman (Garrett) 02 6277 2037
Sue Cant (Sercombe) 02 6277 4742

1. Notes that:
   (a) microcredit is a particularly effective and sustainable means of eradicating poverty;
   (b) microcredit borrowers, particularly women, generate income that allows them to feed, clothe, educate and care for the health of their children;
   (c) to date 66.6 million people in the world have been reached with microcredit services;
   (d) Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) seeks to eradicate poverty, while its 2015 target is to reduce by half the number of people living on less than , per day;
   (e) if the new Microcredit Summit goal of having 175 million of the world’s poorest families receiving microcredit were reached by 2015, then nearly half the MDG target would be met;
   (f) Australia spent ,4.5 million on microcredit in the 2005-06 Aid Budget, which is 0.6% of the Aid Budget; and,
   (g) the USA, which funded microcredit longer than most donor countries, has established an international benchmark for microcredit spending, being 1.25% of the aid budget;
2. Urges the Australian Government to agree to support the new Microcredit Summit goal of having 175 million of the world’s poorest people receiving microcredit by 2015 as a means of achieving the MDG; and,
3. Urges the Australian Government to increase the proportion of money it allocates to microcredit to 1.25% of the aid budget. (Notice given 15 June 2006.)

Time allowed—remaining private Members’ business time prior to 1.45 p.m.