By Hungry 17 October 05
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is calling for a national plan to reduce poverty.
Activities have been organised across Australia to highlight hardship in Australia and overseas during Anti-Poverty Week.
ACOSS president Andrew McCallum says 2 million Australians are living in poverty and 1.5 million do not have jobs.
Mr McCallum says Australia should take note of Ireland's national anti-poverty plan, which has reduced the poverty rate there from 15 to 5 per cent.
"Two million Australians living in poverty at this time of economic growth is something that should be unacceptable to all Australians," he said.
"We're saying let the governments get together and acknowledge there is a problem, then set about looking at how we can reduce that.
"A national anti-poverty plan is something that we think should be considered."
By Feed the World 17 October 05
The world has enough resources to feed its growing population if political leaders can get past "short-term interests", the head of the UN's food agency says.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Senegalese director, Jacques Diouf, has made the comments to mark World Food Day.
"Today the world has the resources and technology to produce sufficient quantities of food not only to meet the demand of a growing population, but also to bring an end to hunger and poverty," Mr Diouf said.
He adds that he "dares to hope" that politicians would "make decisions based on the social harmony of a world of solidarity and peace, not on short-term interests that can lead to injustice and social unrest".
The United Nations estimates that 852 million people worldwide went without enough food in 2004.
That is a rise of 10 million over the previous year, which indicates that food crises have become more frequent around the world.
Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, says every day some 100,000 people die of malnutrition.
"The right to food is a human right," stated the special rapporteur, who will present his full report to the UN in New York on October 27.
The chronic lack of food in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly worrying, with over a third of the region's population now considered malnourished.
The numbers of underfed soared from 88 million 1999 to 200 million in 2001.
Mr Ziegler complains that while the 191 countries in the UN spent a trillion dollars on arms in 2004, they reduced their donations to international organisations.
This year, the coffers of the World Food Program (WFP) were $290 million down, while the UN High Commissioner for Refugees needed an extra $241 million to run his operations properly.
The WFP has had to reduce food rations for thousands of refugees over the past few months, particularly in west Africa and the east African Great Lakes region, to well below the 2,100 calories needed for survival.
By Nick McKenzie 17 October 05
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says he may refuse to sign off on parts of the Federal Government's planned anti-terrorism laws.
Mr Stanhope published a draft of the controversial laws on his website on Friday and has refused to take it down despite a directive from the Federal Government.
Under the legislation, people could be jailed for up to seven years for supporting insurgents in countries like Iraq.
The Australian Federal Police will be able to detain people thought to be involved in or have knowledge of a terrorist act.
The proposals were agreed to in-principle by the state and territory leaders at the last Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.
But Mr Stanhope says the Federal Government is rushing through the legislation at the expense of the states and territories.
"Law of this significance made in this haste can't be good law," he said.
"The defence of this legislation is very much, 'Well look, the premiers and the chief ministers agreed to this at COAG, it must be alright'.
"I'm not at all amused at being used in that way."
Mr Stanhope says the COAG agreement was a broad one that did not cover all the detail revealed in the legislation.
"I find it simply unacceptable for anybody to suggest that I should put my signature on this draft bill, send it back to the Prime Minister, say 'Yes Prime Minister I agree to this bill'," he said.
"I haven't consulted with the people of the ACT, I haven't taken any expert external advice on the provisions of the bill."
'Crashing through'
He says he plans on writing to other state and territory leaders to raise his concerns and will seek advice from his own Government, the community and legal groups before agreeing to support the changes.
"It's clear to me the Prime Minister doesn't want debate. He doesn't want to have to respond to the critics. He doesn't want to have to explain some of the detail," Mr Stanhope said.
"He simply is intent on crashing through this legislation, with its fundamental implications for civil liberties and human rights, without a need to go through a process of consultation."
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