Australia, 2012

You now preside, Sir, over

a forum for every voice — an Assembly of all people and

nations, one for no country or bloc to dominate solely

or lead as one alone, where small and medium-sized

countries are truly heard. Australia warmly welcomes

your election.

The story of the United Nations is truly global,

encompassing all the people of the world. It is a story of

the progress of small and medium-sized countries, not

just of great Powers. It is a story of reconstruction after

world war and of the resettlement of massing millions,

of navigating the winds of change and of the end of

colonialism, bringing self-determination to the world’s

great majority, the billions of the global South. It is

the story of harnessing new sources of wealth and new resources through a revolution of rising expectations

and during decades of dictatorship, famine and war. It

is the story of bringing to justice the perpetrators of

the worst international crimes and of preventing the

worst human atrocities. Now, extending freedom and

harnessing new markets, it is the story of lifting billions

more out of poverty and oppression. That has been the

work of the United Nations for seven decades.

This year we assemble in the knowledge born of

those years, neither expecting perfection nor accepting

the status quo. We understanding that there is much that

we can do together, and more that we can do together

than we could ever do alone.

The United Nations articulates humankind’s

highest ideals. Even more, it makes practical progress

towards realizing those ideals in the world. There

is no better example of that than the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) — specific, measurable

targets of the highest human importance that are now

familiar to us all. Twelve years after 2000 and three

years from 2015, the progress we have made must

be just as familiar. The global economy has grown.

Hundreds of millions of people have lifted themselves

up. That first fundamental Goal, to halve the proportion

of the world’s population living in extreme poverty, has

now been achieved: 1 billion human lives transformed.

A decade ago 100 million children did not get to go

to school. That number has been reduced by fully one

third, and 33 million human futures have been entirely

remade.

But we must all acknowledge that there are vital

areas where the international community is failing to

achieve change. That is why I accepted the Secretary-

General’s invitation to co-chair the Millennium

Development Goals Advocacy Group alongside

Rwanda: to advocate for practical progress in the

coming three years. Where the world has fallen short

of ambitious goals, our response must be action, not

disillusion. That is what Australia will do. We will act.

We will help improve education. Australia’s

development spending on education doubled in the

past five years. We will be among the world’s largest

education donors in 2015. I am especially pleased to join

as an education champion in support of the Secretary-

General’s Education First initiative to mobilize global

support to help achieve education for all children by

2015. I am honoured to lend it Australia’s support.

We will help increase gender equality. I am proud

to announce that at the Pacific Islands Forum Australia

said that it would work alongside our partners in the

Pacific on an unprecedented gender initiative: Pacific

Women Shaping Pacific Development. Australia will

provide $320 million over 10 years to support women’s

political participation, to expand women’s leadership

and to spread economic and social opportunities in

the Pacific. That is a principle underpinning every

Australian aid intervention and initiative: empowering

women and girls.

We will help fight drug-resistant malaria. The

Secretary-General has made malaria one of his key

priorities for his second term. It is a priority we share.

Since 2000, the world has cut the number of deaths

from malaria by 26 per cent. Without those advances,

330,000 more people would have died of malaria last

year, the great majority of them in Africa. But malaria

itself is fighting back. New drug resistance in malaria

must be overcome. Later this year, Australia will hold

the Malaria 2012 meeting, bringing together political

leaders, civil society and the private sector to accelerate

efforts to control and eliminate malaria and combat

growing drug resistance.

While we are working hard to realize the MDGs in

the next three years, Australia is looking further ahead.

The year 2015 is a goal, but it is not a destination. Rather,

it must be a new point of departure for much new work.

Australia pledges to contribute to the important work

of the high-level panel on the post-2015 development

agenda.

Australia brings considerable national experience

in working with conflict-affected States and least

developed countries, especially in our own region. We

will seek to apply what we have learned in our work since

2000 to the world’s plans for beyond 2015. First, peace

is an essential foundation to development, and building

peace is vital to the progress of societies recovering from

conflict. Peacekeepers today must be peacebuilders,

not just stopping conflict but enabling development.

Secondly, there can be no poverty alleviation without

the creation of wealth and jobs. Growth alone is never

sufficient; but to achieve development in the interests

of all people we must create jobs and wealth. Thirdly,

we cannot make poverty history unless we also consign

to history the argument that environmental protection

and human development are conflicting global goals.

Climate change threatens the security of the food supply that guarantees development. New, clean sources of

energy deliver a new source of economic growth.

Australia is one of the world’s most successful

multicultural and multi-faith nations. The Australian

experience proves a deeply important fact. There is

nothing natural or inevitable about violent conflict over

religious belief. We must reaffirm that again today.

The denigration of religious beliefs is never acceptable.

Australia seeks to be an example of freedom for all

faiths, and we support that in the wider world. However,

our tolerance must never extend to tolerating religious

hatred and incitement to violence. Whether such

attitudes lead to attacks against members of religious

minorities or diplomats or to attacks against houses of

worship or diplomatic missions, the perpetrators of all

such violence must be brought to justice and all such

incitement must be condemned. Australia condemns

violence and we work for peace.

We proudly do our full part in the work of the

United Nations for peace and security. We stringently

observe Security Council resolutions aimed at

curtailing weapons proliferation activities, like those

of North Korea. We take the leading role in the United

Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste. We lead

the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands,

which operates with the United Nation’s endorsement.

And we have been the largest non-NATO contributor

to the United Nations-mandated International Security

Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Australia will bring

that record of service to the international community

to our service on the Security Council, should we

have the privilege to be elected by the United Nations

membership in October. There and beyond, our work

and the work of every nation for peace must continue.

As we meet, the Syrian Government is turning

the instruments of State power against the very people

whom State power ought to protect, employing heavy

weapons and ground-attack aircraft against civilians

and engaging in systematic human rights abuses.

Syria’s neighbours — in particular Jordan, Turkey,

Lebanon and Iraq — are burdened by growing numbers

of refugees and are delivering vital help to desperate

people.

The United Nations has done important work

already. Australia is doing its part to help through

humanitarian aid. We must do everything we can to end

the suffering of the Syrian people and to rebuild Syrian

society. Those who are committing crimes against humanity must be held accountable. The international

community must unite behind Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi,

the Joint Special Representative of the United Nations

and the League of Arab States for Syria. We urge the

members of the Security Council to do so and to act

decisively.

The international community must also unite in

guarding against the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction. It is now six years since the Security

Council first expressed concern about Iran’s nuclear

weapons programme. Iran still refuses to take the urgent

steps necessary to build confidence that its nuclear

programme is exclusively peaceful. In contravention

of successive International Atomic Energy Agency and

Security Council resolutions, Iran is moving closer to

having the capacity to produce weapons-grade material.

We therefore stand with the world, united in

sending a strong signal, through Security Council

sanctions, that Iran must change its behaviour now. A

nuclear-armed Iran would be a major threat to regional

and global security, especially given the shocking and

aggressive statements about Israel by Iran’s leadership.

There remains the opportunity for diplomacy, backed

up by robust sanctions, to persuade Iran to change its

course. Iran must take this opportunity for change, and

the nations of the Assembly must press it to do so.

There must also be change in the Middle East peace

process. Australia shares the frustration of the parties

at the current impasse.

We understand the strong desire of the Palestinian

people for national self-determination. Australia

is resolutely committed to the establishment of a

Palestinian State that is both independent and viable.

That is why we provide significant support to the

foundations of a future Palestinian State and build its

infrastructure and economy. More than $300 million in

aid has been provided for the period from 2011 to 2016.

We commend the genuine progress President Abbas

and Prime Minister Fayyad have made in building

the institutions and infrastructure for statehood. And

no one can doubt Australia’s close and continuing

friendship with Israel. Our support for the right of

Israel and its people to exist in security and peace is a historic commitment in Australian policy, and it will

endure.

We urge a return to direct negotiations and that

those negotiations be between the two parties. That is

the only durable basis for achieving a two-State solution.

The present impasse must be overcome. Both sides

need to make compromises and avoid provocations. It

will take sacrifice on both sides to settle complex and

difficult issues such as settlements, borders, security

and Jerusalem. The Israeli and Palestinian people

deserve no less.

Australia’s ideals in the world are those of the

United Nations, and Australians know the practical

value of the United Nations work. That is why Australia

seeks to serve in all the work of the United Nations and

on the Security Council. We are a strong democracy,

welcoming all the peoples, languages and religions

of the world. We are a country of the Asia-Pacific, a

neighbour to developing countries, with a perspective

of both the North and South. We are a State with a

decades-long tradition of capable and committed work

in the United Nations. We contributed to the first

United Nations peacekeeping force in 1947, and we lead

contemporary peacebuilding in our own region.

We support the development of new norms to

enable the United Nations and its States Members to

act to prevent atrocities and to make the perpetrators of

the worst crimes accountable for them. We act as a first

responder to humanitarian need, as a donor who stays

the course and as a partner in rebuilding after conflict.

Australia embraces the high ideals of the United Nations

and takes a practical approach to achieving change. The

work of the United Nations is a historic task in which

Australia wholeheartedly joins.