Heather Bellamy spoke with Amanda Jackson from Micah Challenge

Amanda Jackson

Christian leaders representing over 1 billion people from 170 nations have sent an open letter to heads of the G20 calling for urgent action on corruption and tax evasion. This historic anti-corruption initiative by the global Church came at a decisive political moment as finance ministers met in Australia ahead of the G20 summit in November. Heather Bellamy spoke with Amanda Jackson, head of campaigns and advocacy at Micah Challenge.

Heather: What urgent action have you asked for, or would you be hoping to see in relation to corruption and tax evasion?

Amanda: We're interested in these issues because the poorest people around the world suffer and Christians in those places have said this is a huge barrier. So what we've decided is that if we can get G20 nations, which control so much of the world's economy - about 86% of the world's economy is controlled by those nations - if we can get them to act with more integrity on tax and on openness and transparency then that will have a flow-on effect to most of the population of the whole world.

What we're asking for specifically is - we all know here that we've read stories about tax evasion and companies not paying the fair amount of tax, siphoning money off into tax havens or into low-tax nations - and we just want people to pay fair tax where they make their money. That's what many nations are seeing as a very serious issue because huge companies are so powerful now: they're bigger than most national economies and they need to have some rules and regulations about how they pay tax and where they pay it.

We're also asking governments to be open and to reveal their information, especially to reveal it to smaller nations so that they can access that information and find out what companies are doing in their part of the world, so that's really important for poor countries as well. We're also asking nations to take seriously their commitment not to allow bribery. Every country in the world says that we don't like bribery, but some of them take it a lot more seriously than others and we're asking - urging - all nations to sign up to that and to pursue anti-bribery regulations.

Heather: Who specifically did you give the letter to?

Amanda: We posted it to leaders in countries where we couldn't have access, like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, or Mexico where we don't have a campaign; but in places where we do have a campaign they posted it in their own language to the head of state.

We have had an answer back from a couple of them, so for instance the Prime Minister has responded to the letter we sent in the UK. We also sent letters to Australian embassies as well telling them that we were sending the letter and quite a few of those responded as well. The reason we're tackling Australia is because that's where the meeting is and they're the nation that governs or sets the agenda for the meeting in November.

Heather: So if you've already had a couple of responses, what have those responses been?

Amanda: Well obviously we're going to get a response from the nations that are keenest, let's be honest - but from those ones, they're really keen to do something about these issues. They know that for their own economies it's bad news - we're missing out in the UK on billions of pounds from companies and individuals who aren't paying their fair amount of tax - and so it's a huge issue for all nations.

The G20 has already started to take steps towards this and it's a slow process, so our campaigning is just encouraging them to take further steps when they meet in November.

Finance ministers have already met: they're the guys who actually sit round the table and make the hard decisions - and then when the leaders meet in November they'll come along and hold up the documents and make a big fanfare for the media - but those decisions are made behind closed doors. We're encouraging finance ministers to say: "Look, you realise that things have got to change, so let's make these decisions to make sure that they benefit poorest nations as well as the big nations."

Heather: In those responses you got did you get the impression that this letter that you sent is making a difference?

Amanda: Definitely. Now obviously in some nations it's not going to make much of a difference: it's just going to land on somebody's desk and hopefully it will filter through to somebody. In other nations though, it really does have an impact to say that it's from Christian leaders. There are 77 names on the letter and they represent over a billion Christians around the world: they came from every continent, from about 25 different nations; from evangelical, Pentecostal and ecumenical. The Archbishop of Canterbury tweeted out support for the letter at Easter time. So there's a really strong sense that this is the time that Christians can have an impact on these decisions that politicians are making.