Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Budget – Lowest-ever level of Australian Aid

Australia has signed on to the UN target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on aid, but the 2016-17 budget leaves that figure at 0.23%.

The chief executive of the Australian Council for International Development, Marc Purcell, said the budget had delivered the fourth successive aid budget cut.

“If re-elected, the Turnbull government will preside over the lowest-ever level of Australian aid for the full term of the next parliament.

“Through cuts to programs, the poorest have suffered by life-saving programs ceasing.” Aid cuts damaged Australia’s relationships with neighbours such as Afghanistan and Burma, Purcell said.

Oxfam Australia budget spokeswoman Joy Kyriaco said the cut meant Australia gave just 23 cents in aid for every $100 of national income, one of the lowest levels in its history.

“It beggars belief that the government has now cut more than $11.3bn from Australian aid,” Kyriacou said.

“Oxfam has already had to scale back lifesaving work in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and sub-Saharan Africa – the poorest region in the world – due to unprecedented aid cuts.”

Childfund Australia chief executive Nigel Spence said the budget had made “even deeper cuts to an already decimated aid budget”.

Spence said: “We have to realise these cuts have a significant human cost for some of the most vulnerable children and families in our region and beyond.

“We’ve had to cut education projects, child protection projects and an innovative global education program that was building bridges between children in Australia and developing countries throughout Asia.”

The campaign director for Campaign for Australian Aid, Tony Milne, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the budget cut, which made Australia “the least generous we’ve ever been”.

“We are walking away from our role as a global citizen and building a fairer world.”

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