Oxfam Australia » Opinion

Let’s truly move forward to help asylum seekers

mediateam — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:38:01 +0000

The issue of asylum seekers is, without a doubt, a complicated one. International law and emotive political rhetoric make it so. There are no hard and fast answers but there are, dare I say it, ways to truly move forward on the issue.

The Aussies and Kiwis shouldn’t leave island neighbours high and dry

mediateam — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:33:40 +0000

Prime Minister Julia Gillard won’t be attending a meeting of Pacific island leaders this week (Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 August) – despite the fact that she is currently at the helm of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Broken promises

mediateam — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:29:35 +0000

It's true that people in poor countries on our doorstep won't be voting for either Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott later this month. But Australians who care about doing the right thing will be. So it's no reason for either of the leaders to abandon all mention, during this election campaign, of meeting Australia's international obligations on climate change, or for not putting up policies that will genuinely reduce Australia's emissions to the degree that is required.

West is proving a fair weather friend to the poor, by actor Bill Nighy

mediateam — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:03:37 +0000

No one likes to think of themselves as a fair-weather friend. Being flaky in a crisis is not, after all, an attractive quality. But much as they might try to hide it when they meet in Canada this week, the world’s richest nations are proving themselves to be just that to the world’s poorest people: unreliable at a time when they are reeling from the economic crisis, climate change and food shortages.

Tax the rich to save the poor

mediateam — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:37:21 +0000

The G20 is meeting this weekend at a crucial moment. Weighing on the minds of G20 leaders will be the European sovereign debt crisis, the continuing depth of the US recession and the lack of public financing following gigantic bail-outs to prop up the global finance sector.

Time for AusAID to lead on policy development

mediateam — Mon, 17 May 2010 03:16:10 +0000

One good news story to come out of Tuesday night’s Federal Budget was the increase to $4.3billion for Australia’s international aid program. You might not have realised this was a good news story because it was yet another example of the Rudd Government’s failure to communicate its achievements to the Australian public.

Australian miners ‘lacking transparency’

mediateam — Mon, 17 May 2010 03:10:16 +0000

Whether you believe them or not, threats by the mining sector of a mass exodus overseas as a result of the resource rent tax expose a glaring gap in how Australian companies conduct business around the world.

Rebuilding Haiti

mediateam — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:11:33 +0000

The statues of Haiti’s heroes who led the slave revolt centuries ago are no longer visible. The square overlooking the now destroyed Presidential Palace has become a mass of makeshift shelters where families of earthquake victims try to put their lives together. The new shanty town which has sprung up obscures those national symbols of tumultuous change and great hope.

Cutting Australia’s aid spending would be a tragedy

mediateam — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:01:14 +0000

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce this week suggested Australia could make cuts to its overseas aid program to pay for services in Australia.

Poorest of the poor ask why Copenhagen failed to listen

mediateam — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:23:19 +0000

Shorbanu Khatun of Bangladesh stood out among the thousands of suited negotiators in Copenhagen. Khatun's husband was killed by a tiger when their land was parched by extended dry seasons and flooded with salt water, forcing him to venture into the jungle to feed his family.

Show poor countries the money to tackle climate change

mediateam — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:08:52 +0000

Mr Abbott may have won the majority of the votes in the party room, but if he wishes to do the same at the Federal Election, he must understand that the majority of Australians want action on climate change and will expect him to articulate a substantial policy, based on the science.

Take the pace out of PACER

mediateam — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:35 +0000

Trade officials and Ministers have been meeting this week in Brisbane to hammer out a new trade agreement between the Pacific Island Countries, and Australia and New Zealand – PACER-Plus.

Small-holder farmers the key to world food crisis

mediateam — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:21:03 +0000

There is enough food grown in the world for everyone. And yet we remain stuck in a food crisis. Half the world’s food is lost as waste while a billion people – one in every six of us – cannot access enough of the other half and so go hungry every day. Our leaders have another chance to put that right.

G20’s increased aid funding must be accompanied by better outcomes

mediateam — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:35:38 +0000

As Treasurer Wayne Swan attends the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in London this weekend, the Australian Government is preparing to follow through on a commitment it made at the last G 20 meeting.

Climate change is robbing people of their rights, writes Andrew Hewett

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:47:52 +0000

Around the world climate change is becoming a defining human tragedy of this century. In Micronesia, people are facing the prospect of moving from islands that will soon be underwater.

Leaders have opportunity to help poor

mediateam — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said food security will be top of the agenda at the G8 meeting this week (8 - 10 July). It's good to hear.

Deep injustice at the heart of climate change

mediateam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:27:00 +0000

The world is getting close to the time when a global deal to secure a stable climate for future generations has to be struck, writes Oxfam Australia's James Ensor.

Moving beyond emergency in the NT

mediateam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:48:00 +0000

It was amidst horrifying reports of child sexual abuse that the Northern Territory Emergency Response was announced two years ago this week.

G20 mixed bag gives grounds for scepticism

mediateam — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:37:00 +0000

It is increasingly clear that while the global economic crisis is hitting developed countries like Australia hard, it is crashing through the borders of poor countries with ever-greater severity. Indeed, the World Bank has estimated that an additional two to four hundred thousand infants a year will die as a result of this crisis.

Global meltdown hits world's poor hardest

mediateam — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:48:00 +0000

Buried on page ten of a World Bank Background Paper prepared for last weekend's G20 Finance Ministers' meeting was a sober but profoundly distressing statement.