I would like to begin by
joining with my colleagues in congratulating Ms. Haya
Rashed Al-Khalifa on her election to the presidency of
the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. I am
also delighted to welcome Montenegro as the 192nd
Member of the United Nations.
I also note that this will be the tenth and, indeed,
the final General Assembly for the Secretary-General. I
want to congratulate him on his important contribution
to the United Nations over his term and also
throughout his United Nations career. He has been a
very good colleague of Australia throughout that time.
He has been a determined advocate for peace,
development and United Nations reform, and we wish
him well in the future.
Earlier this month, on the day before the fifth
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks against the United
States, a man called Hakim Taniwal was murdered by a
suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
Mr. Taniwal was the Governor of Paktia province
in eastern Afghanistan. He was a scholarly, gentle-
spoken man of integrity — a good man, with a
reputation as a highly capable administrator. As well as
being an Afghani, Mr. Taniwal was an Australian. He
lived in exile in my country for some years and built a
new life for his family.
But when Afghanistan was liberated from the
Taliban in the wake of 9/11, Mr. Taniwal returned to
help rebuild his homeland. He worked for the
betterment of his fellow Afghans by adopting a
forward-looking model of public administration, far
removed from the Taliban narrative of rule by fear. For
his trouble, the Taliban had him killed. His nephew
died alongside him. A few days later, compounding
atrocity upon atrocity, a second suicide bomber
attacked Mr. Taniwal’s funeral ceremony, killing and
injuring many more people.
The task of rebuilding Afghanistan, in the face of
such atrocities, is demanding great sacrifices on the
part of tens of thousands of brave men and women. It
is a country in which many of the great challenges of
our time intersect: how to free its cities, towns and
villages from the daily threat of violence; how to
ensure that an extremist ideology never again
subjugates the country’s institutions; and how to create
the conditions for stability and good governance so
necessary to economic renewal and so crucial if its
people are to escape poverty and oppression.
Afghanistan represents a fundamental test for
each of us. If we are not resolute and steadfast in
supporting Afghanistan against the scourge of
terrorism, and if we are not prepared collectively to
stand up against the extremists, we will deliver to
coming generations a weak international system and a
far less secure and stable world.
Iraq is another of the front lines in this battle. I
acknowledge here the divided views of United Nations
Member States over the military action against the
regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, yet today there is a
very clear choice that should unite us all.
The extremists have chosen to make Iraq a
battleground. Osama bin Laden has said that Iraq is
“for you or for us to win”. We know what will come of
Iraq if it is won by the extremists. As in Afghanistan,
we must all commit to securing its future. Iraq is not
America’s burden alone, and Afghanistan is not
NATO’s burden alone, because if terrorism prevailed,
the consequences would be catastrophic for each of us,
wherever we may live.
This struggle will be protracted. Our challenge is
not just to keep our citizens safe from terrorist attack;
it is also to defeat an ideology that allows for no ideas
or belief systems other than its own. It is imperative we
see this ideology clearly for what it is: a mindset every
bit as brutal and uncompromising as its totalitarian
predecessors in centuries past. It is an ideology that
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directly challenges the principles and values of
modernity — the flourishing of open markets, open
societies and open minds. To defeat this evil, we must
harness the collective strength of the international
community.
I welcome the recent agreement on the United
Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, but I am
disappointed that the Strategy’s illustrative list of
conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism did not
include extremist ideologies.
Ms. Grabar-Kitarovic (Croatia), Vice-President,
took the Chair.
We need to do much more. States should
conclude a comprehensive convention on international
terrorism. That would demonstrate an unambiguous
commitment, ensuring that all terrorist acts are
criminalized in international law. It is disappointing
that the United Nations still cannot agree on the scope
of such a convention.
More disturbingly, some countries continue to
sponsor terrorist groups to promote their own political
agendas. In the Middle East, it is essential that all
countries, including Iran and Syria, use their influence
over organizations such as Hezbollah to stop terrorist
assaults, including those directed at the State of Israel.
Any viable resolution of the conflict must include
Hezbollah’s disarmament, its renunciation of violence
and a recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace.
In all of this, the United Nations has a role to
play. But, as I have said before in this Hall, the United
Nations is not the answer to all the problems of the
world. Where the United Nations cannot act, individual
States must. Our membership in the United Nations
does not absolve any of us from the responsibility to
show leadership and to pursue practical solutions.
Too often in the world of politics, the temptation
is for Governments to strike an attitude and then leave
the substantive action for another day, or to offload the
responsibility onto others. We can make solemn
pledges — as we should, and we do — to work much
harder to assist developing nations in confronting the
ravages of poverty and disease. We can sign high-
minded manifestos to protect our environment from the
risk of climate change. Alongside global security, these
are two issues crucial to our collective future. But so
much of the talk is mere artifice unless backed up by
resolute, practical and well-constructed policy
responses.
In Australia’s region, practical and effective
cooperation has exemplified the counter-terrorism
response. A regional training centre jointly established
by Indonesia and Australia is helping South-East Asian
law enforcement agencies develop the capabilities they
need to destroy terrorist networks. Other recent
initiatives, such as interfaith dialogues, are promoting
tolerance and mutual understanding.
Practical and effective cooperation has also been
the hallmark of our commitment to East Timor.
Australian Defence Force personnel and police worked
with their counterparts from New Zealand, Malaysia
and Portugal to restore order after the April riots. We
remain ready to continue to provide a significant
“green helmet” military contingent in East Timor to
complement the United Nations police force mandated
under Security Council resolution 1704 (2006).
Elsewhere in our region, Australia has joined in a
partnership with 14 other Pacific countries in a
Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands
(RAMSI). RAMSI is not just about restoring law and
order; some 150 advisers are working with the
Solomon Islands Government, helping to stabilize
finances, revitalize the public service and strengthen
the justice and prison systems. None of these tasks is
easy, and much more remains to be done, but the hard
work has begun, and we are making headway.
In contrast, the tragedy of Darfur poses a
grievous challenge to the international community.
Darfur is a litmus test of the responsibility of the
United Nations to help people who desperately need its
protection. It is a test of the most basic principles of
civilization. We all know this. We also know it is a test
that, so far, the United Nations has failed.
In this Hall last year, we assumed a solemn
responsibility to protect those who have no means of
protecting themselves. The United Nations itself must
now redouble its efforts to try to prevent any further
bloodshed in Darfur, which has already claimed well in
excess of 200,000 lives and brought about the
displacement of millions of persons. The United
Nations must keep its promise to the people of Darfur.
It is no less than they should expect and no less than
we would demand.
35 06-53005
The desperation of Darfur reminds us also of the
immense challenges of development. Members of the
United Nations have recognized this through the
Millennium Development Goals. Aid is important, and
last year Australia committed itself to doubling our
annual aid budget to about $4 billion a year by 2010.
Australia has recently sharpened the focus of our
development assistance programme on supporting good
governance, basic social services and security in
developing countries. In the South Pacific, we will
sponsor new programmes to train people in technical
and entrepreneurial skills.
But increasing aid and reducing debt burdens
alone will not reduce poverty. Economic growth is
central to poverty alleviation. The World Bank
estimates that the number of people living on less than
$2 a day in East Asia fell by around 280 million
between 2001 and 2005. The policies and actions of
developing countries in creating an enabling
environment for economic growth are fundamental to
advances on this front. Likewise, free and open trade
and investment are pivotal. The failure of the Doha
Round of multilateral trade talks would be a cruel
rebuff to the world’s poor. The World Bank estimates
that a strong outcome of the Round could lift an
additional 32 million people out of poverty by 2015.
We cannot underpin sustainable economic
development without protecting the environment on
which we depend. Biodiversity loss, land clearing,
deforestation and climate change present threats to the
common good that can best be overcome through
collective action.
But collective action entails much more than
adopting resolutions and signing treaties. Fine words
and high aspirations may give us a sense that we are
acting to stop environmental degradation, but they are
of little benefit unless backed by practical action.
Domestic implementation of environmental
commitments has not been sufficient, and the gap
between words and action remains too wide.
Climate change is an area where we must move
beyond blind faith in a single multilateral approach.
The great challenge is to address climate change
without jeopardizing economic growth, particularly in
developing countries. We need to work towards a more
inclusive and effective international approach to
climate change. The existing efforts are not enough; we
need to bring forward new ideas, not constrained by
ideology.
The focus of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on
Clean Development and Climate is the development
and transfer of cleaner energy-generating technologies.
The Partnership brings together Australia, the United
States, Japan, China, India and the Republic of Korea.
Together, those countries account for about half of the
world’s gross domestic product, population, energy use
and greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the
Partnership is to bring developed and developing
countries together with the private sector to deploy
technologies — be they renewable energy or carbon
storage — to help reduce the dangers of climate
change, while not stalling economic growth and
development.
Effective international action on the great global
challenges of our time requires more than resolutions
at the United Nations. It requires the exercise of strong
leadership by individual nations. It requires proactive
policy, not political posturing or personal abuse from
this rostrum. It requires a rigorous search for sound and
practical long-term solutions.
As Members of the United Nations, we have
pledged to unite our strengths to maintain international
peace and security. But, equally, we cannot abrogate to
the United Nations the responsibility that we have, as
individual States, for security and good governance
within our borders and within our regions. History will
judge us harshly if we do not shoulder that
responsibility.