In its submission to the 2022-23 Federal Budget, Save the Children highlighted the growing need and inequality arising due to these life and livelihood threatening factors. The leading child rights charity is strongly encouraged by reports that the government will boost development assistance to the Pacific Islands region by $900 million and recommends the following investments in tomorrow’s Budget to protect children’s futures at home and abroad.
As children are once again forced to flee their homes in Australia due to the threat of widespread flooding, Save the Children is also calling for an allocation of $25.69 million over four years to support children’s wellbeing, recovery, and resilience building in the face of the climate crisis. A bold commitment to address climate challenges is even more timely ahead of COP27 and in consideration of Australia’s ambition to host COP29.
To address both the social and economic dimensions of children’s wellbeing and COVID-19 recovery in the short, medium and long term Save the Children is calling for the creation of a National Children’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan.
To mitigate the effects of conflict and violence, Save the Children is calling for $58.09 million over three years to work towards ending violence against children in the Pacific and, an increase in Australia’s humanitarian funding allocation to at least $1.5 billion in response to increased and intensified need, and more complex emergencies.
The conflict in Ukraine as well as impact of the climate crisis are just some of the issues that is driving an unprecedented global hunger crisis, right now 50 million people in 45 countries are teetering on the edge of famine. Save the Children urges the government to provide new and immediate funding for urgent relief, allocating $150 million to hunger hotspots, while committing $200 million annually over three years to global hunger and implement a long-term strategy to address the root causes of food insecurity worldwide.
Save the Children CEO Mat Tinkler said:
“In a world of COVID-19, global conflict, and increasingly severe bushfires, floods and other disasters, in the shadow of what many children perceive as the existential threat of climate change, this is truly a time of crisis for children.
“It’s an incredibly difficult time in history to be a child, with so many factors having the potential to cause significant harm to the development, learning and lifelong opportunities of an entire generation.
“Not seriously investing in the safety, resilience and development of Australia’s children is to not invest in the future of our country as a whole. We implore the new Federal Government to dig deep and do the right thing for our kids, who have both so much to lose and so much to gain.”
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT: Joshua Mcdonald on 0478010972 or media.team@savethechildren.org.au.