Well, good morning to you all.
I understand you were locked out in the cold this morning. This was a pre-determined plan to test your level of Christian commitment to social justice. It was not an accident. Sorry about that. I'm sure you'll recover with something warm to drink and to eat fairly soon.
Micah Challenge has asked for something pretty basic but deeply profound - to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
This is often a challenging environment in which to walk humbly with your God. That's the parliament building.
To do justice, to love mercy, these are big and fundamental challenges for all people of conscience.
Mention was made just before of Wilberforce and many of us have seen the film; some of us have read his biography; some of us have read more about his life. What strikes me about people like Wilberforce and those who at that time and before him, campaigned for social justice was that they were all told at the time it was impossible; that it couldn't be done; that if you change these things it would so fundamentally wreck the economy and the existing social order that it wasn't worth trying; and even if you were sympathetic to the cause, somehow, somehow, it was just so far off into the future that you could never get there.
Well, people like Shaftesbury said no, we can make a difference. People like Wilberforce said no, we can make a difference. People who said one day that women should have the vote, they also made a difference. People who said that vote should be extended to all human beings, whatever their property class, they, too, believed they could make a difference. And in each of their cases, whether it was the repeal of the Child Factory Act, whether it was the introduction of laws to prevent the sending of children down into mines, whether it was laws to ensure that mines could be worked in with safety, and factories, laws which repealed slavery, laws which enabled all people to participate in the democratic society of nations, all these were made possible because men and women decided to make a difference. That's what impresses me about you good folk here today in making poverty history and the underpinnings of it through the Micah Challenge.
Some sometimes argue that the question of social justice and the alleviation and the elimination of extreme poverty are just too hard and too far off. You know something? I think that's wrong.
I think each and every one of you here are demonstrations of the fact that you believe that's wrong. I think each and every one of you here sees yourself as a change-maker in the world today.
Those of you who have signed up for the Micah Challenge, and if my memory serves me well more than 100,000 of you across the country, are out there as individual ambassadors for change in each of your local communities: in the face of local politicians; in the face of your local community leaders; in the face of your local newspapers, causing them to conclude that this isn't just something which hangs of the edge or at the extremes of what's possible or normal in our national and local political life, but it actually is fundamental.
So, I thank you for the work that you've done: for the meetings you've held; the engagements you've had; and the fact that you're here in Canberra today to be in the face of our nation's politicians as well, because it's important that you do so. This place is full of competing priorities. What's important? How do we spend our nation's resources? What should we give our time to? You are constantly out there as this nagging, prophetic voice.
If you read the history of folk like Micah and the Old Testament prophets, they could be real nags. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Micah, Amos - these were in your face types. They didn't have a lot of popularity at the time, by the way, either, in your face types. So, can I say to each and every one of you, it's good, the work that you're doing.
The Millennium Development Goals are the practical mechanism through which we engage as countries of the world to make that difference. There's no point going out there and re-inventing the wheel. The MDGs are there. They are the product of the crafting of agreement between governments going back to the Millennium Summit, and we're now 10 years into the Millennium.
These are basic goals, eight of them, and they go to very basic measures about whether we are making a difference to extreme poverty. That is why we have embraced them as an Australian Government. That's why they've formed the structure through which we explain what we are doing in terms of our international development assistance effort.
There's no point re-inventing the wheel. They should be our framework. That's why we've now incorporated that framework of the MDGs into what we're doing with each and every one of the Island countries of the Pacific. We've done that over the last two years.
How do we measure whether we're making progress or not? Well, the MDGs actually provide a mechanism for doing that. You're either improving the figures on infant mortality, for maternal death, or you're not. It's very measurable.
Of course, having a way in which you measure these things and a way in which you organise your efforts, that's one thing. The second one is whether you're making an effort as well.
Prior to the last election I said we'd commit to 0.5 by 2015-16. That is a commitment from which I believe none of us can move. I thank the Leader of the Opposition and those who have preceded him in his position for committing them to that goal as well. It's really important, and so in the last two years our overseas development assistance contribution has gone from, I think, $3.1 billion to $4.3 billion as a result. The most recent budget - more than half a billion dollars more. We're on track to realise that 0.5 goal, and if you know where we started from, it's been a long distance to travel.
Every Finance Minister and every Treasurer of the country will rail against this. I don't think it's right to do that, and that's why we're on track to reach that. We know there is more to do.
To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. A year or so ago Tim Costello gave me this version of the Bible, a Poverty and Justice Bible. You'll be familiar with it.
Sometimes people think this is just one of those marginal things, also, even in the teaching of the Christian scriptures. It's not. There are 2,000 verses in this Bible which are all about the injunction for each of us to do justice and to love mercy and to make a difference for the poor.
So, thank you, each and every one of you, for making a difference for the poor. Your advocacy on the ground is effective. You've made the nation's political leadership listen, so when you go back to your communities and the schools from which you come, just tell them this one thing - you have made a difference, you are making a difference, and together we will make a difference in eliminating extreme poverty across the world.
That is our nation's ambition and the ambition of all people of conscience, everywhere.