Ms BURKE (3:51 PM) —In December 1992, under United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/196, 17 October was declared the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. On 17 October, every nation is invited to devote the day to presenting and promoting activities on the eradication of poverty both internationally and nationally. In the UK this year this has created initiatives such as `Ringing out against poverty'. This involves all places of worship ringing their bell at 12 noon as a call for the recognition of the worth and dignity of every man, woman and child condemned to live in poverty. Other countries around the world will have events of similar standing such as public meetings, walks, displays and exhibitions. Sadly—and I believe this is due to minimal government impetus—there are no such events occurring in Australia this year, according to the UN.

This measure towards the eradication of poverty is just one of the Millennium Development Goals which the UN has sought to achieve by 2015. In his message on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the Secretary General said:

The main aim in announcing these objectives is to set time-bound and measurable goals. But, just as importantly, the UN announcement gives these issues and goals the prominence necessary so that macro and micro policy formation, at both government and non-government levels, can incorporate them into the very essence of the targets their policies hope to address.

Although these priorities are paramount, none can be said to be more important than eradicating poverty. This is evidenced by the UN declaring the decade between 1997 and 2006 the decade for the eradication of poverty in resolution 50/107. This declaration, along with the 17 October initiative, has seen a sizeable decline in the number of people living on less than a dollar a day. Having said this, due to the eradication being patchy and uneven that number still stands at a staggering 1.2 billion people—about one in every five.

But the problem with poverty figures is this: we can measure poverty in so many ways that we can delude ourselves that, in Australia, poverty in insignificant. This is untrue. Although poverty in Australia is not measured by those living on less than a dollar a day, or absolute poverty, we do have relative poverty rates that are of concern, and certainly high poverty rates amongst our Indigenous communities.

In the last figures available, Australians living at the poverty line of 40 per cent of the median equivalent income was 7.1 per cent. To the uninitiated, this means that 7.1 per cent of Australians are living on about 40 per cent of the average wage. This is in excess of half a per cent more than Canada for the same period of time, more than double that of France and nearly three per cent more than that of the UK and Germany. This results in having people living in poverty within my own electorate of Chisolm, where they need food vouchers in order to give their family and themselves the bare essentials. All too often, these are also the working poor—people who are actually working but are unable to meet their day-to-day needs. They will never own their own house and they will never be free from debt—they are predominately living on credit card debt—and will never cease requiring some form of special support just to have the bare necessities.

The distressing part of living in a country like Australia, where most have enough and some have plenty, is that there is a firm denial about poverty. Even in my electorate, which ranges from the lower end of the economic scale to the very high end, many do not believe that there are those amongst us who live in poverty. It makes many feel much better to place the blame on the victim, to label them or to simply ignore them and refuse to help. This requires less empathy and takes less time than trying to understand how poverty could occur in such a lucky country. But it does, and all too often.

I want to thank the member for Braddon for raising this very important issue in the House and I echo his call that the Millennium Development Goals be achieved through international and domestic programs, especially in eradicating poverty. I hope the government heeds this call and gives prominence to these goals, given its recent $7.5 billion surplus. I commend the motion to the House.