Cutting Australia's aid spending would be a tragedy
Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce this week suggested Australia could make cuts to its overseas aid program to pay for services in Australia. Read full release »
Media Releases
Opinion
05
FEB
2010
24
OCT
2009
Take the pace out of PACER
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. Read full release »
16
OCT
2009
Small-holder farmers the key to world food crisis
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. Read full release »
22
SEP
2009
G20's increased aid funding must be accompanied by better outcomes
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. Read full release »
18
SEP
2009
Climate change is robbing people of their rights, writes Andrew Hewett
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. Read full release »
10
JUL
2009
Leaders have opportunity to help poor
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. Read full release »
23
JUN
2009
Deep injustice at the heart of climate change
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. Read full release »
23
JUN
2009
Moving beyond emergency in the NT
It was amidst horrifying reports of child sexual abuse that the Northern Territory Emergency Response was announced two years ago this week. Read full release »
15
APR
2009
G20 mixed bag gives grounds for scepticism
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. Read full release »
20
MAR
2009
Global meltdown hits world's poor hardest
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. Read full release »
18
FEB
2009
End the greatest health divide
Each day that the AusAID Family planning guidelines remain in place, the capacity of Australian agencies to provide comprehensive reproductive health services to women and communities as part of our development assistance programs is impaired. Read full release »
07
JAN
2009
Rudd must reach out to close the indigenous health gap
A national strategy has to be shaped in partnership with Aboriginal groups. Read full release »
16
DEC
2008
Opportunity lost at Poznan
After two weeks spent in frantic negotiations over commas and semi-colons, the climate negotiations at Poznan have taken only the barest shuffle towards Copenhagen, and on some crucial issues - like the targets for developed countries - have actually retreated from Bali. Read full release »
22
OCT
2008
Remember the forgotten victims of the financial crisis
There are some forgotten victims of the Nightmare on Wall Street. Crises like the one we're experiencing tend to hit people living in poverty the hardest and it will be the case this time around. Developing countries will be hit hard, and people living in poverty in those countries the hardest. Read full release »
28
AUG
2008
Independent charity regulator is long overdue
Andrew Hewett calls for Australian Charities Commission - Opinion piece published on ABC Online on 28/08/08 Read full release »
01
AUG
2008
Sturt and Eagles join forces to Close the Gap
This weekend in the SANFL Round 18, Sturt and the Woodville-West Torrens Football Club are joining forces in support of their Aboriginal players and promoting the Close the Gap campaign, which aims to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Read full release »
25
JUN
2008
Biofuels add millions to the breadline
Unlike many other developed countries, Australia has not set mandatory targets for biofuel production or use. This is encouraging. The Australian Government should not to go down that path. Read full release »
04
JUN
2008
Where Business and Human Rights intersect.
Many Australian corporations are doing great work overseas. They are investing in developing countries, providing job opportunities to local people and working closely with local community organisations. Some Australian companies, however, are also ignoring people's most basic human rights. They are forcibly removing people from their land, dumping cyanide laden waste in waterways that are integral to livelihoods, and, on the whole, facing none of the legal ramifications they would face at home. Read full release »
22
APR
2008
Three words that symbolise decades of neglect and hope for the future
Close the Gap. Three words that symbolise decades of neglect and hope and goodwill for the future. Three words that remind us that the average Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian man does not live to see his 60th birthday. Three words that now represent an agreement between more than 40 organisations, state and federal governments that an unprecedented effort is needed if we are to achieve Indigenous health equality within a generation. Read full release »
12
MAR
2008
Reality for 34 million of the world's refugees
Last week Australia's only refugee camp was dismantled. Called Refugee Realities, the camp occupied Gasworks in Albert Park for four weeks while thousands of school children and members of the public visited. In building the camp, Oxfam's aim was to help people understand that refugees are no different to the rest of us. They just happen to have lived in extraordinary circumstances. Read full release »