Sara Niner Monash University Giving small loans to people for small household purchases or to invest in businesses has been an integral part of Australian, American and other aid programs for decades. This is called “microfinance”, and the aim is not only to alleviate poverty, but to empower women. But simply improving a woman’s economic […]
Bruce Duncan. The Vatican has launched a stringent critique of widespread abuses in global economies, which are driving astonishing degrees of inequality, threatening ecological sustainability, and unleashing powerful reactionary political forces in response, as seen in parts of Europe and elsewhere. The issues are keenly pertinent in Australia, as we see in the Australian Royal […]
Tim Costello. The Coalition Government’s fifth budget last week was carefully calibrated to offer just enough to a discontented electorate to restart the political contest ahead of the poll expected early next year. Yet again Australia’s battered aid program took a hit, this time in the form of a multi-year cut, combined with an extended […]
Reviewed by Gary Harkin, In the opening lines of his new book, A World of Three Zeroes, Muhammad Yunus reminds the reader that, in 2010, Oxfam reported that ‘the world’s richest 388 people owned more wealth than the entire bottom half of the world population (3.3 billion human beings)’. Yunus then updates us with the […]
Loreto Sister Libby Rogerson. The decision on 25 September 2015 by the 193 member states of the UN to endorse, support and promote a global program to eradicate world poverty was nothing short of momentous. The 17 goals with their respective targets and indicators were laid out in the document Transforming Our World: the 2030 […]
Rowan Ireland. Pope Francis’s speeches and homilies during his visits to Chile and Peru during 15-22 January 2018 make for stirring reading. As we’ve come to expect, he addressed global issues of social justice and the mission of the Church, with vivid, sometimes startling, reference to local realities. In both countries, his overall theme was […]
Carol Richards. Queensland University of Technology The non-profit organisation Foodbank released its report Fighting Hunger in Australia this month. Like earlier research it reported that around 15% of Australians experienced food insecurity – an extraordinary figure given up to 40% of edible, but cosmetically imperfect, food is discarded before it reaches the market. The survey […]
In June 1975, the Victorian Society of St Vincent de Paul’s first soup van, a humble old Ford Transit wagon with doors which flew open when they took a corner, started offering friendship and food to the homeless men, at that time mainly affected by alcohol abuse. It was initiated by a group of young […]
John Ferguson. As we approach the seasons of Advent and Christmas, Pope Francis has instituted a new ‘World day of the Poor’, which this year will be celebrated on Sunday 19 November. In his message for the day, Pope Francis says he wants the annual event to be a “powerful appeal to our consciences as […]
Bruce Duncan. Foreign aid is not just a matter of offering charity to people in need overseas. It is very important for our own security and development as a nation. Particularly is this so when climate change is rewriting the rules on how the whole weather system works. The historically unprecedented hurricane and flooding in […]
Peter Whiting. The new minimum wage rate has come into effect on 1 July. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recently announced an increase of $18.29/hour, or approximately 3.3%. Inevitably, the decision failed to satisfy any of the vested parties within the Australian Industry Group representing employers seeking to limit the increase to $10.10/hour, citing weak […]
