Australia, 2006

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

06-53005 34

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.