Australia

ONLY 20 MILLION PEOPLE populate Australia, which is a continental country. Much of the interior of the continent is desert. Most of the people in Australia [Page 54]live along the coasts of the east and south. Aborigines were the only inhabitants until British settlers arrived as the first Europeans to settle the land in the late 1700s. Since the end of World War II, large numbers of immigrants have come from Europe and Asia.

Australia has a federal government with its capital in Canberra. The states of the union are autonomous from one another. The management of poverty is the responsibility of both levels of government. States such as Queensland provide services to prevent, to relieve, or to end poverty. It has departments that carry out chil-dren's services, disability services, employment, housing, health, and education. The other Australian states—Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, along with the Northern Territory—all have similar programs for dealing with poverty.

Domestically the Australian federal government uses AusAID to work in partnership with the Australian state governments, volunteers, academic institutions, think tanks, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to reduce poverty in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Both the Australian state governments and foreign governments are involved. Within Australia there are an estimated 3.5 million people living in poverty, including nearly 900,000 children. Many of these are Aborigines or South Pacific islanders who are helped by the Australian federal government.

The Australian federal Department of Family and Children's Services administers domestic welfare programs used to provide for the indigent, the handicapped, children who need child support, the unemployed, the aged, the homeless, and the economically distressed. A major initiative is focused on reducing domestic violence, since the negative effects of marital strife can include an increase in poverty. It also develops policy proposals for consideration by the government.

AusAID works outside of Australia with foreign governments, multilateral organizations, and NGOs to reduce poverty. Currently, Australia has poverty partnerships with Papua New Guinea; the countries in the Pacific islands—the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue and Tokelau, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu; the countries of south Asia—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka; East Asia—Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam; and the Middle East—Iraq. Many of the countries immediately neighboring Australia have significant poverty problems that range from virtual state collapse in the Solomon Islands to the area of East Timor, which was recently ravaged by war. These countries have the will but lack the resources to meet the needs of their people.

AusAID works in partnership with other Australian federal and state government departments to reduce poverty in the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian government recognizes that to ignore the poverty problems of the fragile countries in its region is likely to increase economic stagnation and prospects for violence, which could last generations. Australia has engaged recently in initiatives that follow a comprehensive approach to solving the problems of poverty. Australian poverty initiatives follow a range of missions to meet a diverse set of needs.

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