World toilet day

Saturday 19 November is World Toilet Day so we thought it was a good idea to talk about – you guessed it … toilets!

During 17-20 September this year, some of the nation’s highest profile politicians joined a queue of rookie lobbyists behind a giant toilet on the grounds of Parliament house in Canberra. Independent MP Rob Oakeshott even sat on it. So did Senator Michaelia Cash.

Why? To draw attention to the fact 2.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to an adequate toilet. What does that mean? That means horrific outcomes for developing nations where millions of children die unnecessarily every year through illnesses caused by poor sanitation.

The giant toilet and its queue were the centrepiece of this year’s Voices for Justice event where 230 ordinary Australians descended on Federal Parliament for two days of rookie lobbying with the nation’s most powerful people.

Rob Oakeshott supporting Voices for Justice

Voices for Justice is run by Micah Challenge, a coalition campaign made up of Australian NGOs and Church groups determined to alleviate global poverty and injustice in the developing world. Caritas Australia supports both Micah Challenge and Voices for Justice.

In all, over 100 meetings were held with politicians from all around the country.

The main aim of Voices for Justice is to lobby politicians to ensure the government sticks to its promise of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were signed up to in 2000. The MDGs centre around reducing global poverty.

By the end of the event the government reaffirmed its commitment to allocating 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income to foreign aid by 2015/16. Currently it contributes 0.35 per cent.

Voices for Justice is the only event of its kind. But clearly a successful one.

More information:
Voices for justice
Millenium Development Goals