Australia, 2011

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

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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

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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

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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.