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What responsibilities do Australians owe the global poor?
Summary
A debate-style forum exploring such questions as:
- What sorts of obligations do individual Australians have to the poor in countries other than their own?
- What sorts of obligations does the Australian government – as an example of Western governments generally – have to poor countries?
- What obligations does it have to the poor within these countries?
- Does the Australian government have an obligation that goes beyond foreign aid provided in line with Australian national interest?
- Are the above obligations and responsibilities rendered more acute by the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on private finance flowing to developing countries?
- Are Australians benefiting from the global capitalist system in way that increases the burden on the poor in other countries? If so, what is an appropriate response?
- Depending on how the moral question of obligations to the poor is resolved, what are the implications for non-government practitioners such as International Women's Development Agency and World Vision Australia? Especially, are they thinking through fully what empowerment of the poor might imply?
- How do ‘Southern’ countries perceive the issue of responsibilities and obligations? Do they see it as just Western paternalism mixed with liberal guilt and some hypocrisy? Do they see such obligations as necessary to identify and then insist on?
- Ultimately, what do the respective panellists think a ‘just world’ looks like?
Venue |
The Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre
Cnr Swanston Street and Monash Road, The University of Melbourne
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Date & time |
Tuesday, 16 February 2010 6:00 PM |
Featuring
PANELLISTS
Peter Singer – World-renowned ethicist and author of the Life you can Save
Peter Singer was born in Melbourne and educated at the universities of Melbourne and Oxford. He has taught at Oxford, La Trobe and Monash universities and since 1999 and has been Ira W DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He also holds the part-time position of Laureate Professor and is a member of the Australian Research Council Special Research Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) at the University of Melbourne. Peter is the author of several books on ethics including the seminal Animal Liberation and Democracy and Disobedience. His most recent book is The Life You Can Save. He is founding President of the International Association of Bioethics and, outside academic life, is the co-founder, and President, of The Great Ape Project, an international effort to obtain basic rights for chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. He is also President of Animal Rights International.
Photo courtesy of"Denise Applewhite/Princeton University" |
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Tim Costello - CEO, World Vision Australia
Tim Costello is one of Australia’s leading voices on social justice issues. He's taken a prominent role in national debates on issues such as gambling, urban poverty, homelessness, reconciliation and substance abuse. Tim's also been instrumental in keeping the issues surrounding global poverty on the national agenda since February 2004, when he joined World Vision Australia as Chief Executive. In June 2005, Tim was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO); and in 2006 he was named Victorian Australian of the Year
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MODERATOR
Robyn Archer
Robyn Archer is a singer, writer, director, artistic director and public advocate for the arts. She is the Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra ( 2013) and Artistic Director of The Light in Winter ( Federation Square Melbourne). This year she has confirmed concerts in Hawai’i, Adelaide and Melbourne and the University of WA will publish a collection of her keynote addresses. Robyn is in demand globally as a speaker on the arts. She is patron of IWDA, co-patron of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies and of numerous arts organisations. She recently made a film with AUSAID and the ABC on Wan Smolbag in Vanuatu. Details of Robyn’s career and many current activities and associations can be found at the depArcher Lounge www.robynarcher.com.au |
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The Hon Bob McMullan MP. Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance
In February 1988, Bob was sworn in as Senator for the Australian Capital Territory. In 1990 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer and in 1991 became Manager of Government Business in the Senate. In 1993 Bob was appointed Minister for the Arts and Administrative Services and became a member of the Cabinet, the first time the Arts portfolio was represented in Cabinet. In January 1994, he was appointed Minister for Trade. Following a redistribution of Canberra’s House of Representative seats, Bob stood for the seat of Canberra in 1996, and was elected. Following a redistribution in 1998, Bob became Member for Fraser. Between 1996 and 2007 Bob held a number of Shadow Ministerial positions. After the election of the Rudd Government in November 2007 Bob was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.
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Claire Slatter - Development Expert, Fiji
Clare is a development expert and Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at the Fiji National University. She has been a consultant with a number of Development agencies such as the WHO, UNDP Pacific Centre, IWDA, UNIFEM and Oxfam on issues around Gender Equality, Economic security and Human Rights and taught political studies in the Department of History and Politics at the University of the South Pacific for 17 years. Clare has a background in the nuclear free and independent Pacific movement, the women's movement, trade unionism and journalism, and is also a founding member of the third world feminist network, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), and was its general coordinator from 1997-2004. She is a graduate of the University of the South Pacific (B.A), the Australian National University (M.A.), and Massey University (PhD).
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John Roskam - Executive Director, Institute for Public Affairs
John Roskam has been the Executive Director of the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs since 2004. Before joining the IPA he taught political theory at the University of Melbourne. He was previously the Executive Director of The Menzies Research Centre in Canberra, has been a senior adviser and chief of staff to federal and state education minister, and was the manager of government and corporate affairs for a global mining company.
His publications include Australia's Education Choices (with Professor Brian Caldwell), 'Terrorism and Poverty' in Blaming Ourselves, 'Liberalism and Social Welfare' in Liberalism and the Australian Federation, and 'The Liberal Party and the Great Split' in The Split Fifty Years Later.
His fortnightly column appears in The Australian Financial Review. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Australian Journal of Public Administration, and Connor Court Press, and the Advisory Board of The Centre for Advanced Journalism at the University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration, Australia in Victoria, and is Vice-President of the Old Xaverians Soccer Club. |
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Associate Professor Lisa Cameron - Director, Asian Economics Centre, University of Melbourne
Lisa Cameron received her PhD (Economics) from Princeton University in 1996. She was appointed as a lecturer in the Economics Department at the University of Melbourne in January 1997. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in January 2000 and Associate Professor in January 2003. She currently also holds the post of Research Associate at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University and has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the ILO, UNICEF and AusAID. Lisa is also currently the Director of the Asian Economic Centre.
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