Voices for Justice Set for 2018

Voices for Justice Set for 2018

Voices for Justice 2018 will take place from 1 to 4 December, Micah Australia has announced.

The four day event trains Christians on how to engage their elected representatives at the federal parliament. It concludes with attendees lobbying politicians at Australian Parliament House, calling on them to do what they can to raise Australia’s level of international development.

Micah Challenge’s CEO Rev. Tim Costello has said that the Australian government was not being generous, despite better than expected revenue.

“Personal tax is bringing in an extra $10.6 billion, goods and services taxes an extra $7.5 billion, and company tax is bringing in $36.2 billion more than it did a year ago,” Rev. Costello wrote on Micah Australia’s website.

“And yet there is deafening silence from the Turnbull Government when it comes to the plight of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

“Our leaders tell us we are a generous nation, yet according to the OECD’s global ranking we have fallen from 17th last year to 19th. This is the third year in a row that Australia – the 13th largest OECD economy – has dropped,” he wrote.

“We give proportionally less aid than nations not as wealthy – including New Zealand, Ireland and Belgium.”

“With the world fast ‘retribalising’ and leading democracies turning inwards, now more than ever, we need to speak up for justice and the world’s poor.”

Australia was among the nations who previously pledged to increase their level of international development funding to 0.7 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015. The country is yet to meet this commitment, however, and a recent freeze on the level of aid funding has set the level of funding at 0.22 percent, the lowest proportion in history. The Turnbull government has said that aid spending will increase when the budget is back in surplus.

Voices for Justice 2018 runs from 1 to 4 December at Parliament House in Canberra. Micah Australia is currently taking expressions of interest. Registrations open on 11 June.

Jonathan Foye is Insights’ Editor

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