Targeting poverty

By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE was first stop on the road for a group of young people lobbying the Federal Government to increase foreign aid to help wipe out extreme global poverty.
More than 1000 people set out from every major city in Australia on a road trip to Canberra for a two-day summit to push for Australia to give .7 of one per cent of gross national income to meet a figure set four decades ago.
The Healesville stop-over on Sunday, 9 May, was part of the aim to garner community level action which included collecting signatures on a petition calling for Australia to increase its foreign aid and to hear from McEwen election candidates on global poverty.
Labor candidate Rob Mitchell and Greens candidate Steve Meacher spoke on their parties’ policies on the issue. “It was a great opportunity to listen, hear and understand what locals want from their candidates at this election,” Mr Mitchell said.
A spokesperson for the Make Poverty History campaign said with 1.4 billion people still in extreme poverty, there was an urgent need to keep up the momentum.
“We need to re-energise the global movement to end extreme poverty and ramp up Australia’s efforts to finally end extreme poverty,” he said.