Australia's Position on Debt Relief

<Tab/>Debt has been the major cause of extreme poverty in many countries of the world for a long time. These countries include most African and Latin American countries, in which hundreds of millions of people live off less than $1 per day. The reason for this unpayable debt was rich western governments lending large amounts of money to dictators who misused the money and now the countries cannot pay it back …

…a tremendous impact on Ethiopians because the average income in Ethiopia per year is $100! Nicaragua owes Australia $6.3 million and Ethiopia $12.7. These countries spend much more on repaying debt than on education and medical care. In being so involved in other countries' economic problems, Australia is greatly improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people who are stuck in the slavery of their debt burden, knowing they would never have been able to repay it.