Senator Trish Crossin was a member of the Australian delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union who this week put forward a landmark initiative addressing Global Food Security.
Date: 27 October 2009
Senator Trish Crossin last week attended the 121st General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva, Switzerland. Senator Crossin was part of the Australian delegation to the IPU who this week put forward a landmark initiative addressing Global Food Security.
This initiative was particularly historic as it is the first successful motion by Australia in the IPU's 120 year history.
The Australian delegation worked closely with Uganda and other African Group Parliamentarians to secure support for the resolution.
The resolution sets out a role for Parliamentarians across the world to work together with world leaders, governments, UN organisations and non-governmental organisations to address the challenges of food security.
Over 1 billion people in the world do not have enough food to eat and two-thirds of these are in the Asia-Pacific region. Every six seconds a child dies because of starvation and related diseases.
The resolution was adopted unanimously by world Parliamentarians.
Senator Crossin said, "Australia recognises the importance of global food security. This is why we put forward a proposal for an emergency item on parliamentary action to ensure it is brought to the attention of parliaments around the world."
"We worked closely with African states, primarily Uganda (who were representing the African Group) to ensure that the emergency item was put on the agenda of the IPU."
There are 153 countries in the IPU which includes the United Kingdom, China, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina. The resolution was unanimously adopted (by consensus) on 22 October 2009 to wide acclaim.