Following the launch of the Safer World for All campaign, Caritas Australia has taken part in a series of events in Canberra designed to engage ministers on critical global humanitarian issues of concern.
This week Caritas Australia CEO Kirsty Robertson spoke at the press launch of the Safer World for All policy report, which makes a case for investment in overseas development. Fellow speakers included ETU National Secretary, Michael Wright, and Burnet Institute executive director, Professor Brendan Crabb. The launch was also supported by the independent member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel and Nationals International Development spokesperson, Michael McCormack.
At the launch Kirsty Roberston said of the current global conditions, “These are the preconditions for a volatile and unstable world. Conflicts like the invasion of Ukraine, combined with hotter, more dangerous weather has already given us a forewarning of what this looks like. As crises overlap and morph, they can quickly degenerate into generalised catastrophes.”
“Two decades of global co-operation and progress are at risk of being squandered,” Robertson remarked, adding that “the world’s inroads against infectious diseases and empowering girls and women were abruptly cut short when Covid swept the world. There is no steady state or holding pattern - we either invest to get back on track or allow global progress to unravel.”
Kirsty Robertson also spoke at the Micah Australia Women Leaders Network dinner alongside Asuntha Charles, Global Women’s Rights Advocate as well as an event on the Sudan Crisis, hosted by the Sudanese Australian Advocacy Network (SAAN) at Parliament House. ACFID's Humanitarian Advisor Naomi Brooks chaired the SAAN event, with Kirsty Robertson joined on the panel by Ghada Shawgi, Attorney at Law, Senior Gender and Human Rights Law Expert & United Nations Senior Advisor, and Dr Joseph Yunis, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland Frazer Institute.
Throughout the two-day lobbying event Caritas Australia attended private meetings with several MPs, as well as CEOs of other Australian humanitarian organisations.
