News & Media

We’re still fighting for a Zero Carbon New Zealand

October 4, 2017

This was far from being the ‘boring election’ many thought it was going to be – and almost two weeks after the last vote was cast, its result is still uncertain.

We knew Oxfam’s election story was also going to be far from boring when we led a coalition of 15 aid agencies to campaign for all political parties to commit New Zealand to legally binding pollution reduction targets.

All these agencies have witnessed the number of climate-related humanitarian disasters more than double since 1980. This means that climate change has the potential to wind back development progress made over the last 60 years, creating havoc in developed and developing countries alike. After many years working in long-term development solutions and responding to humanitarian disasters in over 90 countries, all of us agree that this is one of the biggest development challenges of the 21st century.

You Backed the Plan

From secular to faith-based agencies, from Dargaville to Dunedin, the agencies – representing hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders with a variety of political views, but who are all equally concerned about the many problems our children will face in the near future due to climate change – all knew it wouldn’t be easy to bring climate change to the top of the political agenda. But with your help, we did it.

During the months leading up to the election, more than 5,000 New Zealanders got behind our campaign Back the Plan – Back to Zero and demanded a real climate commitment from all political parties. This led to a huge success as we secured a commitment from Labour, Greens and NZ First on legislation to reduce New Zealand’s pollution. But our work is far from finished.

Whatever the final election result is, we will continue to fight for a fairer, more just New Zealand.

Climate change is happening now and is affecting us all – our Pacific neighbours, our communities, our businesses and people living in poverty. We will continue to work with the newly elected government and hold it to account as we advocate for a cross-party agreement that puts the future of our children first: a Zero Carbon Act.

As the Electoral Commission is still counting the 380,000 special votes remaining, whatever the result, we will continue to call for our MPs to legislate a Zero Carbon Act and make New Zealand carbon-neutral by 2050.

Watch this space.

Unprecedented movement of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh leads to a humanitarian crisis

October 3, 2017

A young woman receives food aid at the Bulakhali camp in Bangladesh, where 13,500 people are seeking humanitarian assistance. Oxfam plans to assist more than 200,000 people with emergency support. Photo: AJM Zobaidur Rahman/Oxfam

Oxfam is responding with water, sanitation, and other essentials

Half a million people have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar since August. This unprecedented influx of refugees in a short period of time has led to a large and escalating humanitarian crisis.

The camps are not equipped to handle the surge of people. More than 70 percent of the at least 501,000 refugees are without adequate shelter, and half of them have no safe drinking water. They are in need life-saving assistance including clean drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene, and essential food and emergency supplies.

Working with local partners NGO Forum for Public Health and Coast Trust, Oxfam has reached more than 100,000 people with clean drinking water, portable toilets and sanitation facilities, and food including rice, sugar, and fortified biscuits. We are also working with the government and other agencies to make sure that new refugee camps are designed to meet humanitarian standards.

Here, you can see the conditions in which refugees in Bangladesh are living.

Photo: Tommy Trenchard/Panos

Balukhali camp in southern Bangladesh is now home to thousands of refugees.

Photo: Tommy Trenchard/Panos

Men drill for water in Balukhali camp.

Photo: Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville

A group of girls collect drinking water for their families from a pump in Balhukali camp.

Photo: Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville

A father carries his son across a broken bamboo bridge at the edge of Balhukali camp in Bangladesh. Three days of heavy rains have flooded many of the areas where refugees had set up temporary shelters, forcing them to move to higher ground.

Photo: Aurélie Marrier d’Unienville

A Rohingya man carries a bag of food aid.

Photo: Oxfam

Mahmud, 65, is staying in a new settlement at Cox’s Bazar. He has been in Bangladesh for two weeks, but this is the first time he could use a latrine.

In total, we are planning to reach more than 200,000 people. To help us reach them, and other vulnerable people affected by disasters, please donate to our Disaster Response Fund today.

Donate

US: tax cuts for the rich, budget cuts for the poor

September 28, 2017

Thankgod Chigizie sits inside his school classroom. His community, Rumuekpe, in Nigeria, was badly destroyed during the conflict among various rival militants and gangs over access to oil money from 2005-2008. Many were killed and displaced, and homes, schools and churches were left in ruins. Photo: George Osodi/Panos for Oxfam America

Newest US tax cut proposal would rig tax rules even further.

In the US, the leadership of the House and Senate joined together with President Trump yesterday to release a new tax cut plan they aim to pass before the end of 2017. In short, it is bad.

The proposal is a blueprint for increasing inequality in the US and around the world. Here are a few key reasons why:

1. The plan’s main feature is huge tax cuts for large multinational companies that the public hates.

Right now large American companies use offshore tax havens and other complex schemes to avoid nearly $135 billion in taxes every year. The top 50 US companies alone have more than $1.6 stashed offshore. But instead of reforming the tax code so these companies must pay what they owe, the plan actually gets rid of all federal taxes companies must pay for profits earned offshore, offers companies a one-time special low rate to repatriate the profits they have already earned, and lowers the rate on all domestic profits companies earn in the future from 35 percent to 20 percent at most.

In other words, the plan rewards huge tax dodgers with a massive tax cut. Not only do these ideas lack logic, public polling shows that they are hugely unpopular. The Wall Street Journal recently released a poll showing that most Americans believe corporations should actually pay higher taxes:

In spite of pervasive myths that the US taxes companies at higher rates than other countries, US companies pay about the average effective tax rate of other wealthy nations. This matters to the poor because corporate taxes are among the most progressive kinds of taxes the US can rely on to raise revenues. Cutting this rate will disproportionately benefit the wealthy and result in either higher taxes for the middle class or cuts to programs that help the poor, either of which would send inequality in the wrong direction.

We have already seen efforts to severely slash funding for life-saving global anti-poverty programs in the President’s FY 2017 budget. If this tax cut plan passes, those budget pressures would be amplified dramatically in the future.

2. The plan would make it harder for poor countries to raise their own revenue.

The proposal moves the US from a “worldwide” system of corporate taxation to a “territorial” system. In simple terms, this means that American companies would no longer pay any US taxes for any profits earned abroad. This would create a greater incentive for US companies operating in poor countries to use tricks and schemes to shift their profits into tax havens. Many companies already do this, but rather than stemming tax haven abuse by American companies, the plan would accelerate it.

Additionally, this shift would force poor countries to compete with each other to offer special tax incentives to US companies to attract their business. For countries already struggling to provide even the most basic education, healthcare and infrastructure, these incentives can be costly and will make it harder for countries to ensure the poor benefit from increased foreign investment.

3. The plan will drive a global race to the bottom.

Many rich countries are watching the US tax reform debates closely and planning their own countermeasures in response. The proponents of corporate tax cuts argue that they will make the US more “competitive” globally. But just as they did when the US cut tax rates in the 80s, other rich countries will lower their own taxes. Britain has already pledged to have the lowest rate among the G7 richest countries. France and Germany have signalled they would lower their rate, too.

Moreover, rich countries are already struggling to compete with tax havens with tax rates as low as zero. There is simply no way to cut your way out of this problem. The solution must be to work collaboratively with other countries to prevent multinational companies from gaming the system. Measures to prevent companies from abusing offshore tax havens and to ensure that companies are paying taxes where their economic activity is truly occurring is the only long-term solution that can prevent a perpetual race to the bottom.

There are many reasons to oppose these tax-cut plans, but those are three of the core reasons that Oxfam – as a global anti-poverty organization – believes the proposal is so dangerous for poorer people.

Oxfam’s reaction to the new US tax plan

September 27, 2017

In response to the tax plan outline proposed jointly by President Trump and Congressional leaders, Paul O’Brien, Oxfam America’s Vice-President for Policy and Advocacy, made the following statement:

“The tax plan introduced today is a blueprint for increased inequality. There is no doubt that the biggest winners in our global economy are those at the top, and this proposal will skew that even further.

“Instead of the real reform the President promised on the campaign trail, this plan offers more tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for the poor. While President Trump was elected on his promise to fix the rigged political and economic system, these proposals will only further rig the rules in favor of the rich and powerful while harming poor families in the US and in developing countries worldwide.

“Every year corporate tax dodging costs Americans approximately $135 billion. The same tricks, schemes, and offshore tax havens sap an estimated $100 billion from poor countries – revenue that should go towards building schools, bridges and hospitals. The plans released today do nothing to solve these problems.

“Worse yet, the ideas offered today perversely reward the very companies that dodge the most taxes. This plan will incentivize further use of offshore tax havens that harm America and poor countries alike. Huge tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations will have to be paid for by cuts in anti-poverty programs at a time when need for global engagement and solutions to inequality is only growing. If anything the plans will incentivize companies to offshore more jobs and profits.

“The President and Congress should go back to the drawing board and start over with a plan that works with our allies around the world to stem tax haven abuse. Only through cooperation can we avoid a global race to the bottom where everyone but the richest will suffer.”

-ends-

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas without shelter & clean water

September 27, 2017

More than 70 per cent of the nearly 480,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh are without adequate shelter and half have no safe drinking water, Oxfam warned today.

Heavy rains and floods in camps have left people facing extreme hardships, and have slowed down the building of emergency shelters, clean water tanks, and the delivery of aid.

Darren Brunk, Oxfam New Zealand’s humanitarian lead, said: “It is truly terrible to see the level of need. People are living in makeshift tents under heavy rains. Tens of thousands don’t have food or clean water. If they are very lucky they have some plastic sheeting to take shelter under – but most of the time families are huddled under sarongs. These people urgently need help.

“Most camps are flooded, including Katupalong and Balukhali where Oxfam works. For people forced to flee this is absolutely devastating – they have crossed one torrential river, just to be confronted by insecurity and pouring rain.

“Women and children are particularly vulnerable, sleeping under open skies, roadsides, and forest areas with little or no protection.”

A humanitarian flight carrying 15 tons of supplies left Oxfam’s warehouse in the UK on Friday. Materials include water pumps, material for construction of emergency latrines and water tanks. Two more humanitarian flights are planned with additional supplies.

Since August 25, nearly 480,000 Rohingya people have crossed over to Bangladesh’s South-Eastern districts resulting in a massive humanitarian crisis. Of these it is estimated that over 340,000 have inadequate shelter and about 240,000 have no clean water.

Oxfam’s response has reached nearly 100,000 people with clean drinking water, emergency toilets, water pumps and food rations. Oxfam is planning to help more than 200,000 people during the first phase of its response. Oxfam is also supporting the government and humanitarian partners to ensure camps newly established will meet the necessary humanitarian standards.

Due to the volatile and chaotic situation, Oxfam is concerned about abuse and exploitation of women and girls. Privacy, health, and hygiene for women, girls and nursing mothers are compromised, and measures must be taken to prevent any form of sexual violence.More than 70 per cent of the nearly 430,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh are without adequate shelter and half have no safe drinking water, Oxfam warned today.

Heavy rains and floods in camps have left people facing extreme hardships, and have slowed down the building of emergency shelters, clean water tanks, and the delivery of aid.

“Women and children are particularly vulnerable, sleeping under open skies, roadsides, and forest areas with little or no protection.”

Since August 25, nearly 430,000 Rohingya people have crossed over to Bangladesh’s South-Eastern districts resulting in a massive humanitarian crisis. Of these it is estimated that over 300,000 have inadequate shelter and about 210,000 have no clean water.

Donations to support Oxfam’s emergency responses around the world can be made online at oxfam.org.nz/drf or by calling 0800 600 700.

Oxfam warns of Maria’s impact in Dominican Republic

September 24, 2017

Oxfam is currently preparing to respond to the likely humanitarian needs of people now being hit by Hurricane Maria in Dominican Republic. Much of the country is already saturated after the recent heavy rains caused by Hurricanes Irma and José. This flooding has put the most vulnerable population at risk, especially those living in mountainous regions and near rivers, canyons or areas prone to landslides.

“We are monitoring the effects of Hurricane Maria now. Oxfam staff and partner organizations are prepared to support any response that the Dominican government might organize, “said Raúl del Río, Oxfam Director in the Dominican Republic.

Oxfam will likely focus on water, sanitation and hygiene assistance. It is most concerned about the risk of dengue, zika, cholera, leptospirosis and other vector-borne diseases. Oxfam would also respond to with food aid for the most affected people, should that be required.

Mr del Rio said that there is an unequal distribution of risk in the country, where women, people with disabilities, children, and poorest citizens were all at greater risk of being affected by the impact of an extreme weather event.

As a result, Oxfam will continue to advocate for the rights of those affected and will continue to report the inequalities that affect those who are least affected by disasters.