ACRATH Supports Australian Catholic Bishops’ Statement
The Fight Against World Poverty
Conscious that the 2015 target date for the Millenium Development Goals that were committed to by many nations, including Australia, is drawing near the Australian Catholic Bishops are urging Australians to confront the challenge of world poverty. The Social Justice Statement 2013-2014 issued by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has as its title Lazarus at Our Gate.
ACRATH has long campaigned for the realization of the Millenium Development Goals as we believe alleviating poverty and ensuring all children have at least primary education will reduce vulnerability to human trafficking. While there have been important achievements because of the MDGs, such as the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has halved since 2000, the task is by no mean finished. ACRATH will continue to campaign for the MDGs. In particular we call on the Government of Australia not to cut foreign aid but to ensure that in line with our MDG commitment made in 2000 Australia’s overseas development aid will increase to at least 0.05% of national income by 2015.
