YouSaid · the spoken record

Kevin Rudd

lines on the record: 71
first: 2008-09-24
most recent: 2011-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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 11-51179 4 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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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 3 11-51179 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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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 11-51179 2 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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (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.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“Australia believes in the power of creative ideas and active diplomacy to solve long-standing international problems. Australia values good international citizenship. It is for these reasons that Australia has been committed to the United Nations since the very beginning. The United Nations is inevitably imperfect. As the Organization’s second Secretary-General — the great Swede, Dag Hammarskjöld — famously said, “The United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell”. Our responsibility today is to fulfil the vision that our forebears had for this great institution 65 years ago. Our responsibility is to make the United Nations fulfil its mission — to make the United Nations work through the combined political will of all Member States.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Over the years, Australia has a led a number of significant United Nations initiatives, including the Cambodia peace settlement and the conclusion of the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention, as well as leading the force that 10-55103 44 stabilized Timor-Leste after its people voted for independence. Australia remains intimately engaged in all the funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations. We are also active in other international institutions, including the Commonwealth. Australia is the twelfth largest source of funding for the United Nations budget. Australia pays in full and on time. We always seek to do that which we say we will do. Australia wants to be part of the solution to the many challenges that the international community now faces, not just point to the problems.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“I am proud of Australia’s apology to our own indigenous peoples and our policy of closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. I am also proud of Australia’s support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia is making a major effort in the treatment of our indigenous peoples, although we still have a long way to go. Australia is a founding Member of the United Nations. We have been active in this institution for the last 65 years. We are also a candidate for the Security Council for the 2013-2014 term. Australia has contributed 65,000 of our number to 52 different peacekeeping missions across the world. We remain active in several such peace operations today, including in Cyprus, Sudan, Timor-Leste and Afghanistan.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Australia looks forward to working with UN Women on the vast array of challenges which half of humanity faces and for which our existing international frameworks have been found wanting. The education of women and girls and the security of women and girls from violence and sexual abuse and exploitation must now become a core part of our global campaign for a fairer world. Human rights abuses and humanitarian crises in failing States continue to plague us. We must enhance the negotiations on the responsibility to protect and support the mandate of the International Criminal Court. We must also continue to speak out against flagrant abuses. Often it is the indigenous peoples of the world who suffer most.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“This week, in New York, we said that our aid programme has doubled over the last five years and is projected to double again by 2015. Over time, more of our aid will go to the least developed countries, and we will continue to give high priority to assisting the world’s small island States, particularly our Pacific neighbours, in recognition of their special needs. We expect to invest some $5 billion in education by 2015, including support for universal primary education. Australia also expects to invest at least $1.6 billion in women’s and children’s health up to 2015. Australia applauds the initiative to create a new institution entitled UN Women, under the capable leadership of the new Under-Secretary-General, Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In doing so, the Governments of the world will have to closely consider new growth models that incorporate both the concept and the reality of lower- carbon economies. For the economies of the world, this transformation — which some have called the next industrial revolution — also represents an unprecedented opportunity for investment and employment as the global economy embraces new efficiency measures and new renewable energy strategies. The international community needs to embrace a new way of looking at climate change, which sees action on climate change providing new industries, new investment and new job opportunities for the future. All Governments represented in the Assembly participated in the High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Australia fully embraces the MDG framework.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“The international community needs to see an early sign of real success in our international efforts to combat climate change. We believe that action on rainforests, through what is called the REDD-plus set of initiatives — on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries — represents one such area of possible early advance. Australia is now active on both the Secretary- General’s High-level Panels, on global sustainability and on climate change finance. This, added to our continued participation in the UNFCCC, means that Australia will continue to be among the most globally active States in global forums for bringing about a comprehensive and effective global response to climate change.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Much, however, remains to be done. Australia believes the international community must urgently address the particular climate-change adaptation needs of the world’s most vulnerable States, in particular the island countries of the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. 43 10-55103 One significant area of progress in the period ahead lies in the proper protection, preservation and reforestation of the world’s rainforests. Collectively, rainforest degradation and deforestation in developing countries represents about one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Australia stands ready to act with other States, including Norway, to build on the work already done, in order to achieve an effective outcome in this area as rapidly as possible.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“It did, however, represented four significant advances. For the first time, the Accord entrenched 2°C or less as the limit beyond which global temperatures could not be allowed to rise in order to avoid irretrievable climate change for the planet. For the first time, both developed and developing countries accepted that they had responsibilities to bring about this outcome. For the first time, developed and developing countries agreed to develop a framework for the measurement, reporting and verification of mitigation actions. And for the first time, developed countries committed themselves to mobilizing an amount approaching $30 billion in international public financing for immediate action in developing countries to 2012, and to work towards a goal of mobilizing $100 billion annually by 2020 in funding from all sources.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“These have formed part of the Group of 20 (G-20) agenda, in which Australia is active. The objectives of the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth agreed to by the G-20 States at their Pittsburgh summit in September 2009 remain essential and must be implemented if we are to act on the causes of the recent crisis. Last December, the nations of the world assembled in Copenhagen for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Australia was an active participant at Copenhagen. Together with a number of other States, Australia worked tirelessly to produce the Copenhagen Accord. The Accord did not represent all that the international community needed then in order to bring about a comprehensive response to the continuing challenge of climate change.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We cannot afford simply to wait for another such disaster to occur before realizing that the resources of the United Nations and its agencies are simply incapable of meeting challenges of such an order of magnitude. The challenges to global economic stability remain significant. The full impact of the global financial crisis is not yet clear. There are still systemic problems within the global financial system. These must be dealt with through the appropriate national and international institutions if we are to remove the underlying causes of the crisis that began in the United States in September 2008 and then proceeded to ravage the economies and the working people of the world. Beyond the specific reforms necessary in the global financial system, the parallel problem of global financial imbalances must also be addressed.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Australia proposes that the international community consider afresh our capacity to respond rapidly, coherently and proportionately to large-scale natural disasters. Within our own region, Australia argues that this would also represent an effective benefit to the peoples and countries of our region, which are particularly prone to natural disasters. It would also in time constitute a valuable confidence- and security-building measure among the armed forces, emergency services and security agencies of the various nation-States of the Asia Pacific. The magnitude of what I witnessed last week when I was in Pakistan underlines the importance of better planning, preparation and coordination to deal with natural disasters on a mass scale.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Australia therefore welcomes the imminent membership of the United States and Russia in the East Asia Summit. The East Asia Summit leaders will take this historic decision in Hanoi in October. Australia, as a founding member of the East Asia Summit, looks forward to contributing to the evolution of this wider sense of community across this, the most dynamic region of the world. On questions of wider human security, Australia remains fully engaged on international and regional challenges, including irregular movements of people, organized crime and people-smuggling. The most immediate and pressing threat to the physical security of Australia’s wider region lies in the scourge of natural disasters. The Asia-Pacific region has seen tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes and floods on a massive scale.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Australia’s position remains constant: such a settlement must allow both Israel and a future Palestinian State to live side by side in peace and security. Australia calls on all parties to put their shoulders to the wheel, to seize the historic opportunity that now presents itself to bring about a lasting peace. All States members of the General Assembly should welcome the prospect of both an Israeli and a Palestinian State being represented at the sixty-sixth session of the Assembly, to be held next year. 10-55103 42 Over the past several years, Australia has promoted the concept of an Asia-Pacific community involving the active membership in the future architecture of our region of both the United States and the Russian Federation.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“And Australia and Japan took the initiative this week in New York to jointly host a cross- regional meeting of Foreign Ministers, with the aim of working towards the implementation of those 64 actions. The potential catastrophe of nuclear conflict means that the status quo is not an option. We must move ahead with the negotiation of a fissile material cut-off treaty, and we must ensure that the United Nations disarmament machinery is doing its job. On the wider question of security, the Australian Government, under Prime Minister Gillard, warmly welcomes the statement to this Assembly by the President of the United States concerning his efforts to achieve a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace in the Middle East (see ).”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Australia and Japan worked closely together in the lead-up to the Conference, including through the jointly sponsored report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), prepared by the former Foreign Minister of Australia, Gareth Evans, and his Japanese counterpart, Yoriko Kawaguchi. This significant report provided substantial momentum in the lead-up to the Review Conference. We believe that the Evans-Kawaguchi report of the ICNND also represents the most comprehensive, practical and contemporary blueprint for the international community to both consider and adopt a comprehensive arms control and non-proliferation agenda. The Review Conference agreed by consensus on 64 sets of actions.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In 1996, Australia sponsored the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in this Assembly to ensure its adoption. Since then, 182 States have signed the Treaty and 153 have ratified it. Nine more States are needed to ratify in order for the Treaty to enter into force. Australia welcomes recent statements by Indonesia and the United States concerning their intention to ratify the Treaty, and we would urge all States that to date have failed to indicate their intention to ratify the Treaty to do so in order to enable it to enter into force. The most recent Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference was held earlier this year.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“The threat remains real. We must equally be concerned about the continued challenge of nuclear proliferation. Violations of the non-proliferation regime by States such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Iran represent a potent and potential threat to us all. It is for this reason that Australia provides robust support to the United Nations sanctions regime against both the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Iran. The United Nations has played a critical role in promoting the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. Non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament are mutually reinforcing processes and cannot be separated. Australia’s activism on arms control and disarmament remains undiminished. And there remains much urgent work to be done.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“These brave soldiers, police officers and aid workers, representing so many of the countries represented here in the General Assembly, including Australia, remain in Afghanistan following many years of conflict. The result is that Afghanistan no longer represents an unimpeded base for the global operations of terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida. The result is also that we are all contributing to the security and stability of Afghanistan as a nation. This has been a difficult war, but our collective resolve is strong enough to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a base for the export of terrorism. Beyond Afghanistan, terrorism continues to remain a threat to people of all faiths and civilizations. We must remain nationally and internationally vigilant against the possibility of further terrorist attacks.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We are now in the tenth year since terrorists launched their murderous attack on this great city of New York. The threat of international terrorism remains alive. It continues to challenge civilized norms, to generate fear and insecurity, and to take innocent civilian lives in many parts of the world. 41 10-55103 The outlawing of terrorist organizations under the provisions of the relevant Security Council resolutions, together with the individual and cooperative measures taken by Member States, reflect the unprecedented levels of international collaboration in responding to the worldwide threat of terrorism. As part of the effort to combat terrorism, many Member States have their armed forces and other personnel committed to Afghanistan, again sanctioned by Security Council resolutions.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In other words, we must enable the institutions we have created to do the job for which they were created. Put even more starkly, we must do that which we say. If we have a Conference on Disarmament, it should do disarmament — not pretend. If we have a convention on climate change, it must do the job to tackle climate change — not just talk about it, and similarly with development. Otherwise, the credibility of the United Nations in the eyes of the world and our own citizens will eventually collapse. The international community can no longer tolerate the actions of a few dissenting States to roadblock the common resolve of the many. The international community faces the continuing challenge of international terrorism. Terrorism knows no geographic or political boundaries.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“If we fail to make the United Nations work and to make its institutions relevant to the great challenges we all now face, the uncomfortable fact is that the United Nations will become a hollow shell. Nation States may retain its form, but will increasingly seek to go around it and deploy other mechanisms to achieve real results. And that is the question we all face today. It is a question of our collective political will to make the existing institutions work and combine the existing and unique legitimacy of the United Nations system with a new-found effectiveness on security, development and climate change. The United Nations has most of the essential structures in place, but if the structures are to work we must harness the political will necessary to make them work.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“But equally, they have created or at least amplified a new set of security threats to all humankind: pandemic diseases, transnational organized crime and the continuing threat of global terrorism. There is also the global challenge of climate change. The unconstrained carbon emissions of one State impact on the long-term survival of all States. Climate change respects no national or geographic boundaries and thus simultaneously demands both national and integrated global responses. So two thirds of a century after our formation, we the United Nations now face increasingly complex global challenges in an increasingly fragmented world and a much more contested international space. These new global realities create an imperative for responsive, representative and, most critically, effective systems of global governance.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Today, we are faced with a different set of challenges and in different strategic, political and economic circumstances. We now live in a world that is more multipolar and more interconnected than ever before. We are confronted with the double-edged sword of globalization. The transformation of the global economy has increased living standards and lifted many hundreds of millions out of poverty. At the same time, the increased interdependence of global financial markets ensured that no country connected to the world economy was spared the impact of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, the rapid transformation of global communications and the radical increase in global people movements have improved the well-being of all humankind.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“This great body has been in existence for two thirds of a century — three times longer than its predecessor body, the League of Nations, and longer than previous attempts to fashion a continuing collective approach to the common problems of nation States. The question we must ask ourselves today is whether the United Nations remains effective in confronting the challenges of our time. The United Nations was established in the grim aftermath of the two deadliest conflicts in human history, in which close to 80 million people were killed and entire families and almost entire generations lost for all time. The world came together out of necessity. There had to be a better way, and in the decades since we first met at San Francisco, we have managed to avoid another world war, although at times that seemed less than certain.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“And so it falls to this generation to now summon the political faith and to exercise the political will necessary to act for the common purposes of the planet we all share.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Our Foreign Minister at the time, Herbert Evatt, made a significant contribution at the San Francisco Conference, particularly on the part of small and medium-sized countries. He ensured that the role of the General Assembly was protected in the structure of the Organization as a whole. Sixty years ago this week, he was elected President of the General Assembly at its third session. Evatt was a patriotic Australian. Evatt was equally a passionate internationalist. Sixty years later, this institution, together with other international institutions of our current order, have yet to realize the vision of those who founded it. Yet the need today, in this age of unprecedented global interdependence, is greater than ever before.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Our priorities are regional, but our interests are global. We work with partners around the world to meet shared challenges. Through our membership in the United Nations, we are committed to using creative middle-Power diplomacy to help overcome the great challenges of our age — challenges that are beyond the power of individual nation-States to resolve, that can be overcome only through unprecedented cooperation between States. That is because the problems that we seek to solve in this Hall and through the organs of the United Nations touch every one of our peoples. To advance prosperity and stability at home, we must advance prosperity and stability around the globe. Australia was one of the founding Members of the United Nations.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)