What responsibilities do Australians owe the global poor?

Summary

A debate-style forum exploring such questions as:


* What sorts of obligations do individual Australians have to the poor in countries other than their own?
* What sorts of obligations does the Australian government – as an example of Western governments generally – have to poor countries?
* What obligations does it have to the poor within these countries?
* Does the Australian government have an obligation that goes beyond foreign aid provided in line with Australian national interest?
* Are the above obligations and responsibilities rendered more acute by the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on private finance flowing to developing countries?
* Are Australians benefiting from the global capitalist system in way that increases the burden on the poor in other countries? If so, what is an appropriate response?
* Depending on how the moral question of obligations to the poor is resolved, what are the implications for non-government practitioners such as International Women's Development Agency and World Vision Australia? Especially, are they thinking through fully what empowerment of the poor might imply?
* How do ‘Southern’ countries perceive the issue of responsibilities and obligations? Do they see it as just Western paternalism mixed with liberal guilt and some hypocrisy? Do they see such obligations as necessary to identify and then insist on?
* Ultimately, what do the respective panellists think a ‘just world’ looks like?