Australia

Since we last gathered in this great Assembly one year ago, we have witnessed developments of historic dimensions. There has been democratic protest and democratic reform across the Arab world, as we discovered afresh that freedom is the right of all, not just of the few. Also, a global economic crisis is rolling on, as we enter a new and dangerous period that threatens the jobs and livelihoods of working people everywhere. And while rarely making the front pages, the other great global challenges that have been with us now for too many years continue their almost alarmingly silent advance — challenges of grinding poverty, environmental degradation, the continued proliferation of nuclear weapons, the enhancement of human rights, all of which compete for attention on an already crowded international agenda. Our global institutions are struggling to comprehend, let alone effectively respond to, this vast array of challenges that now confront us — challenges that arise as the inevitable consequence of what we now simply call globalization. Put simply, the dilemma is this: the challenges we face are increasingly global while the institutions at our disposal are still primarily national. Or put more crudely, for those engaged in democratic politics, the answers may lie abroad, but all the votes lie at home. Three years ago, when I first spoke at this podium, I spoke of the storm clouds gathering across the global economy. It seemed as if we were in free fall as we all stared into the abyss, with the very real possibility of a second global depression in a century. Through coordinated intervention in 2009, we broke the fall. Yet three years on, the crisis in the global economy continues, still with a capacity to engulf us all. Recovery is stalling. Unemployment is rising. Confidence is waning. There are growing concerns over sovereign debt levels, and there are concerns also over the national and international political will to deal with these challenges. This week, the International Monetary Fund issued a stark warning for the global economy, highlighting that we have entered a new and dangerous phase. So what then is to be done? First, reforms to the financial system should be implemented and taxpayers should no longer be asked to bail out the irresponsible behaviour of particular financial institutions. Secondly, all major economies need to find a credible path back to surplus over time, consistent with the Group of Twenty’s Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth. Thirdly, we 11-51179 2 must prevent a further outbreak of protectionism and we must conclude Doha, as history will condemn us if we repeat the job-destroying protectionism of the 1930s that transformed a financial crisis into a full- blown depression. Fourthly, for international trade to grow and Chinese domestic demand to make a greater contribution to growth in economies around the world, we must also see currency reform, particularly with the appreciation of the Chinese yuan. And finally, we must with clarity of leadership and resolution of purpose define and deliver a range of other new innovative drivers of global growth. These include innovative public-private financing for the new infrastructure revolution needed for power, water, agriculture, transport and communications. The jobs potential for the green energy revolution must be fully harvested by carbon pricing, and women and youth must participate fully in the economies of the developed and the developing world. These are not just useful social policies. These are not just useful environmental policies. They are now necessary economic policies to generate the next missing increment of global economic growth. What is required, therefore, is global and national political leadership capable of looking beyond the next electoral cycle — to look to the long term over the short term, to look to the strategic rather than the tactical, and to look to the necessary over the urgent. Over the course of the last decade, we have seen an acceleration of the shift of economic power to Asia marking Asia’s re-emergence as the centre of global economic gravity after an interruption of more than 200 years. In the year 2000, China was a mere 3.7 per cent of global GDP and India was less than half that. By 2030, they will account for more than 20 per cent of global GDP, and that will rise further. Asian countries held 16.6 per cent of global foreign exchange reserves in 2001. Now they hold 39 per cent. Therefore, what happens in Asia is now of fundamental relevance to the world, not just to the region itself. Asian economic growth has been overwhelmingly good for the global economy. But Asia has also seen an exponential increase in military expenditure. Over the last 20 years military expenditure in East Asia grew by nearly 150 per cent. During the same period the United States’ military expenditure grew by 36 per cent. Asia, with its many unresolved territorial disputes and military tensions, has become the new global arms bazaar. One of the big spenders, despite the poverty afflicting its population, is North Korea. North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and its long-range missile programme represent a direct threat to the security of our region, including Australia. To deal adequately with those and other security challenges in Asia, we need strong regional institutional architecture, as a complement to the United Nations, to help build transparency, cooperation and, in time, a sense of common security in our region. For that reason, Australia has promoted the concept of an Asia-Pacific community. Collectively, regional countries now have an opportunity to realize the idea of such a community through the expanded East Asia Summit (EAS), which for the first time this year will include the Presidents of the United States and of the Russian Federation. Over time, a stronger EAS can promote the type of rules-based order regionally for which the United Nations strives globally. This task is critical to avoid damaging strategic miscalculation in the Asia-Pacific region, which would also undermine global economic growth. I say again: what happens in Asia now matters not just for Asia, itself, but for the world. In Australia’s more immediate region in the South Pacific, we are bound together by the common bonds of democracy and the responsibility we all have to develop those economies and protect their natural environment. We thank the Secretary-General for his visit to the Pacific Islands Forum — the first ever by a United Nations Secretary-General. His commitment to our region is an important signal of the international community’s interests in the Pacific’s prosperity, its sustainability and its democracy. Global events since the last session of the General Assembly have highlighted that the human cry for freedom and for democracy is both indivisible and universal. Australia stands with the rest of the international community in applauding the courage of those citizens seeking what is naturally theirs in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Libya, and now in Syria. In Egypt, we are now supporting improved dry land farming and assistance with urban employment 3 11-51179 programmes as Egypt moves to critical parliamentary and presidential elections. In Tunisia, we are providing agricultural and electoral assistance. In Libya, Australia was among the first to campaign internationally for a no-fly zone to protect civilians at a time when Al-Qadhafi seemed destined for victory. We are proud of the fact that since the Libya conflict began, Australia stands across the world as the third largest humanitarian donor to the long-suffering people of Libya. We also stand ready to assist with institution- building in the new Libya of the future. What challenges us now is the ongoing brutality in Syria. The Syrian regime should heed the lessons of Libya. We call on Bashar Al-Assad to step down now, for political reform to begin now, and for the international community to intensify its pressure on Damascus to respond to the voices of the Syrian people demanding their legitimate freedom. Twelve months ago, we had no expectation of change in Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. But we did hope to see progress in the historic process to bring permanent peace to the peoples of Israel and Palestine. Sadly, there has been no progress. Australia remains committed to a negotiated two-State solution that allows a secure and independent Israel to live side by side with a secure and independent Palestinian State. Over the past 10 months I have travelled three times to both Jerusalem and Ramallah, where I have met on each occasion with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas. I have urged both parties to engage in direct negotiations. I have argued that they should be held on the basis of the 1967 boundaries plus appropriate land swaps. I have argued that the remaining final status issues — the right to return, the status of Jerusalem, the Holy Sites and the provision of external security — be resolved through such direct negotiations. My fear is that if we do not see these matters concluded in the near term, the rapidly changing geo-politics of the region will make the prospects of a lasting settlement remote. We have already seen tension between Israel and Egypt. We have already seen the fracturing of the relationship between Israel and Turkey. We do not know how long the current framework of the Arab Peace Plan will remain on the table. We are fearful of a further intifada of the type we have seen before. As a friend of Israel, we are fearful that in the absence of a negotiated settlement, Israel’s security situation will deteriorate rapidly in the year ahead. As a friend of the Palestinian people, we believe that the time has come for direct negotiations to establish a Palestinian State, one which also guarantees the security of Israel. If we fail to achieve this, I fear the gravity of the consequences as the ground continues to change across the wider Middle East. I note also that these views have been reflected today by the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Australia therefore urges both parties to seize the day and to shape the future of a new Middle East. We await the outcome from the weeks that lie ahead in New York, before framing our response to any particular resolution before the United Nations. Terrorism is the enemy of all civilized peoples. A decade since 9/11, terrorism still casts a deep shadow over the security and safety of our citizens. Many of Australia’s finest have lost their lives in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. Australia will stay the course in Afghanistan, because we refuse to yield to terrorism. While terrorism threatens thousands, nuclear proliferation threatens millions. Australia remains vitally committed to the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world and is active to that end. That is why we have established with Japan the Non-proliferation and Disarmament Initiative — the NPDI — to take forward the agenda of the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. As we speak in this Assembly, we should remind ourselves that a fifth of humanity lives in grinding poverty. The scale of the challenge has been graphically demonstrated by this year’s devastating drought in the Horn of Africa. I witnessed how bad things are when I visited the affected areas in July. Australia has given almost US$ 100 million. We are proud to be the fourth largest international donor to that crisis. We will continue to give. Last year, we gathered to see how we were tracking on our collective pledge to lift a billion people out of poverty by 2015. The report card was very poor. Most of the Millennium Development Goals are unlikely to be achieved. Australia has doubled its official development assistance (ODA) budget over the past five years, and we are on track to double it again 11-51179 4 by 2015. Based on available data, that would make Australia’s ODA budget the sixth largest in the world. The international community must get behind both regional and global efforts to meet the strategic need for food security. With a forecast global population of 9.3 billion by 2050, an estimated increase of 70 per cent in global food production will be needed to feed the world. In food security, we should also be blunt. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is failing fully to meet its mandate to the poor of the world. Under its new management, FAO needs to set clear priorities for the future and eliminate the unsustainable administrative overheads it has long tolerated. If FAO does not do so, Australia will comprehensively review its development funding for FAO under our new aid effectiveness criteria. Food is fundamental to development. So too is the right to education. All of the world’s children must be given a chance at life that is good for them and good for their economies. For that reason, and learning from both the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the GAVI Alliance, Australia believes that the time has come for the international community to consider developing a new public-private institution with an explicit mandate for school education. At present, this task is shared between the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO, with negligible private sector buy-in. We should consider, therefore, a new global fund for education that would concentrate exclusively on the immediate task of getting nearly 70 million children into schools by 2015. Australia would consider contributing substantially to such an institution to bring about real results at a rate as rapid as possible. I challenge education donors, current and potential, to join such a fund. In supporting the world’s most vulnerable peoples, we also recognize the world’s estimated 370 million indigenous peoples, spread across 90 of the 193 United Nations Member States. They remain among the most marginalized and disadvantaged in the world, including in our country, Australia. That is why the Australian Government has reached beyond the apology to the Stolen Generations to pursue constitutional recognition for our First Peoples. And we are committed to closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Our hope of answering the development challenges of the world is inextricably linked to the health of the planet itself. The planet ultimately can bear only so much. Scientists tell us that there are planetary boundaries beyond which we should not venture — in climate change, biodiversity loss, stratospheric ozone depletion, chemical pollution, ocean acidification and the depletion of freshwater reserves. It is not just a matter of atmospheric limits, but of the oceans as well. Next year at Rio the international community will have the opportunity to act decisively to protect a planet now in stress, just as we need to take effective global action on climate change. Climate change will not go away, even if some choose the easy path of simply hiding their heads in the sand. If we do that, our children and theirs will never forgive us — nor should they. As the global community, we face challenges of historic consequence — to our global economy, to global security, to the basic freedoms of all peoples, to our global environment, to the security of our citizens, to our obligation to the world’s poor and to our planetary boundaries themselves. While so many challenges lie before us, the past year has proven that when the international community does act collectively and decisively, we can deliver — as we have seen in the decisions of the Security Council on Libya and Côte d’Ivoire. But to be effective, this parliament of humankind, these United Nations, must continue to summon the political will of Member States to make our global institutions work. Otherwise, we will become a clanging gong, full of sound and sentiment, but ultimately symbolizing nothing. When Secretary-General Ban came to Australia two weeks ago, he saw a country that values the rules- based system that the United Nations embodies. Australia today is a middle Power with global interests, animated by deep values of freedom and a fair go for all. This is the Australia we are proud of in its work in the world. This is the Australia that believes in the principles of good international citizenship. This is the Australia that rolls up its sleeves, the Australia that by nature wants to pitch in, the Australia that wants to make a difference for the betterment of all humankind.