The Australian character is that we are a generous people. We would be appalled by the level of poverty in the world and ask what we can do about it. It’s not nice to have poor and sick neighbours and do nothing to help them.

Australia gives AusAID to Indonesia Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Afghanistan Vietnam The Philippines East Timor Cambodia and other countries. At present Australia gives $4billion per year (0.35% of our national budget and this is moving to $8billion by 2015 or 0.5%).

AusAID could be the most effective step we could take to mitigating global overpopulation IF it was targeted at a program to help other nations to manage their population sustainably.

Mitigating global overpopulation would also be one of the most effective climate mitigation strategies.