Greens Foreign Aid Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to the Government's announcement of a review of Australia’s foreign aid.

Senator Faruqi said:

“The Government must take this review as an opportunity to reset their approach to foreign aid to one that puts social, economic and climate justice at the heart of all our aid programs.

We are gathered today on stolen land. This land always was and always will be aboriginal land.

Voting together, One Nation and the Liberal-National Government blocked the release of the Climate Change Action Strategy for the Foreign Aid Program.

The Motion

I move:

That there be laid on the table by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, by no later than 9.30 am on 1 August 2019, all draft and final versions, produced since July 2018, of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's climate change action strategy for the foreign aid program.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister Payne. Pacific nations have identified climate change as the single greatest threat to their security, calling on Australia to do more to reduce its carbon emissions.

Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for International Development, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has said that climate justice must be central to Australia’s development assistance program following reports that the Foreign Minister, Senator Marise Payne, received the climate change strategy six months ago but is yet to release it.

Senator Faruqi said:

I’m honoured to be the new Greens spokesperson for International Development. As someone born in the Global South taking on this role, I am looking forward to bringing a new perspective.

Global poverty is the result of colonialism, structural inequalities, and grossly unfair neoliberal trade and debt systems. We must look at overseas aid as a global justice issue.

I am inspired by the words of Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, “Poverty is not written in the stars; underdevelopment is not one of God's mysterious designs”.