KCP - Catholic Diocese of Broome

Our thoughts are no doubt turning to the celebration of Christmas. This is taken for granted in Australia. It is a great privilege that we enjoy in this

country - the ability to be able to plan ahead with some certainty in anticipation of a great family celebration. Most of us have a pretty goodidea that we will be able to afford to buy toys, food, presents and refreshments for the celebrations to come. We usually plan well ahead for these functions. Even in our churches we take up the themes of the preparation season we call Advent. Some people, even in Australia, will not enjoy this 'luxury'.
In reflecting on the election campaign just past, I am very conscious of the 'conspiracy of silence' that seemed to be agreed upon by the major political parties. There was hardly a mention of the issues related to unemployment, poverty, refugees, the war in Iraq, the just treatment of the East Timorese.
In March this year, I wrote the following:
Whatever else, let's hope that there can be a vigorous, open and honest debate around the issues that count and that the Australian voters will be motivated in their choices by what is in the best long-term interests of all sectors of the Australian population, keeping in mind the genuine needs of our neighbours in the less affluent parts of our global village.
The end result has been anything but what I had hoped for back then. What have the unemployed and those living in poverty in Australia got to look forward to at Christmas? Where is their share of the largesse promised out of the storehouse of goodies boasted about by John Howard in the election campaign? What do the men, women and children still languishing in our State sponsored but privately-run-for-profit Detention Centres have to look forward to for Christmas this year? What do those living in Third World conditions in remote Aboriginal communities and on the fringes of our towns have to look forward to? It looks like more of the same.
What about our responsibility as a good neighbour to take up our part of the duty to rid the world of hunger and poverty? What do the East Timorese people have to look forward to this Christmas? If they are lucky they may receive a charity handout from Alexander Downer which will be a small fraction of what they deserve in justice, generosity and compassion. As Fr Bruce Duncan pointed out in a recent article, the Pope is so angry about this world situation that he has called it 'the war of the powerful against the weak.'.
Our obligations as responsible members of the world community have also been lost in the petty, backyard bickering about which Party can promise the most to many of those who, in comparison with our sisters and brothers in the Third World, need it least. When Indian activist and author Arudhati Roy was asked recently by Andrew Denton why she gave most of her Booker Prize money away she said quite simply, '…nobody deserves to have so much when so many have so little.'
In the recent article quoted earlier, Bruce Duncan went on to ask, 'Why are there not howls of outrage that Australia's overseas aid budget is so small, at 0.25% of GDP, a third of the target set by the United Nations? Do Australians realise that despite the government's lavish budget spending, we have cut our aid to Africa, to some of the most desperately impoverished people in the world? Even aid to Iraq, which we helped devastate, has been reduced from $40 million to a pitiful $22 million. Have we no shame?'
I am left asking the same questions.