Charity Begins At Home!

I would like to state at the outset that I welcome the announcement of our Prime Minister that the Australian government pledges over 1 billion dollars in aid to Indonesia to assist the people affected by the recent tragedy.

I wonder whether he could also consider the old adage, "charity begins at home"?

Australia as a whole is a 'rich' country, by comparison with many others around the world. There are many of us in the fortunate position of having our basic needs for shelter, food and clothing met with some resources left over to enable us to enjoy a relatively good life style.

Unfortunately there are hundreds of thousands of our own citizens who do not share in this well being.

Every day we see some of them in the streets or parks because they are unable to afford a place to live.

We see some of them unable to get life saving operations because theses are considered 'elective' surgery and hence they have to wait until it is too late.

We see people being turned away from our hospitals because there are insufficient nurses and doctors.

We see people being unable to afford to purchase the medicines that they need to save their lives.

We see people unable to afford an education because of the high cost.

We see people who cannot earn enough to feed their families and are reliant on charities to supplement their hard work just to keep body and soul together.

We see people in the public service as well as in private enterprise working so hard that they simply fall over because their employer wants to have annual productivity dividends.

We have chronic crises in our own country that could benefit from the generosity that seems to be extended to those in other lands.

I have no problem with the media creating a competitive frenzy to help generate competitive levels of support from nations, companies and individuals in support for those in need overseas, and I have no problem with public figures such as Mr Smith chiding others to give more.

What I do have a problem with is, why this is only happening now? Thousands of our own citizens die each year because we do not care enough about them to provide them with the means to survive.

Have we been deaf dumb and blind to the expressions of those in our community who have needs? Do we care more for people who are our neighbours over thousands of miles away and less for those neighbours who live around the corner?

The taxpayers and the citizens of this country have as much right to expect the government of Australia, to be as generous to our own disadvantaged as it is to others.

The disadvantaged in Australia have as much right as others to expect that companies and rich citizens extend a helping hand to them as they are doing for others overseas.

Let me be really clear about this - people in this country should not suffer simply because of our generosity to others.

Let's also campaign to ensure that the spirit of giving and sharing that has been so markedly demonstrated in the last weeks will be extended to assist those in our own community who through no fault of their own are just as much in need as those in Aceh or Sri Lanka or Thailand.

Let us not suddenly forget how good it has made us feel to give to others in need when it comes to supporting those who live with us in our own communities.