Opinion pieces

51 - 60 of 143 results

Australia's C-Grade Report for Lack of Ambition on Aid

Monday, November 27, 2017

The Australian Government's report card on foreign policy would read "C" for "disappointing" this year. Australia’s aid assistance has yet again been relegated to second-class status in Australia’s global engagement – not even worthy of a mention in the speeches made to launch it.

Opinion Pieces, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and Carribean, Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Australian Government, Foreign Aid, Tim Costello

I've Visited Many Terrible Refugee Camps but Cox's Bazar Felt Like the Gates of Hell

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

In a wretched makeshift refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, near the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar, I am sitting on the ground, sweltering under a 'shelter' of black plastic talking with three small orphans, aged eight, six and four -- whose lives have been suddenly and violently reshaped. They are among more than a million people now clinging to life in drenching heat.

Opinion Pieces, Asia and the Pacific, Bangladesh, Conflict, Myanmar, Tim Costello

Why the Manus Asylum Seekers Should be Brought to Australia

Friday, July 21, 2017

After four grim years it’s time to resettle asylum seekers stranded on Manus and Nauru here in Australia. The situation is sliding into chaos at the Manus Detention Centre, as water and power is cut off building by building, leaving people without access to phones or toilets.

Opinion Pieces, Asia and the Pacific, Asylum Seekers, Refugee Crisis, Refugees

With a Lion Behind and the Sea in Front, G20 Leaders Head to Hamburg

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Not far from Hamburg’s heavily-guarded Messe und Congress, the convention centre where much of the business of the G20 summit will be done, is an abandoned theatre, the Rote Flora, now a graffiti-covered squat where the blazing red banners of anti-G20 activists this week are proclaiming: ‘Welcome to Hell’.

Opinion Pieces, Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Foreign Aid, G20, Tim Costello

Even Poor Countries Are More Generous To Refugees Than Rich Australia

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Once upon a time there was a poor landlocked country and a rich island nation. When strangers seeking help came by foot to the poor country, they were welcomed in a rich spirit of generosity and given food and water and land. But when strangers seeking help came by boat to the rich country, they were banished to tiny islands offshore, proving that at heart, the country was not really rich at all.

Opinion Pieces, Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Refugee Crisis, Syria, Tim Costello, Uganda

High Hopes Dashed as Australia's Generous Soul Keeps Shrinking

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

This year, World Vision was hoping for a visionary budget. Instead, Australia’s dwindling foreign aid funding demonstrated dumb economics and provided stark evidence of Australia’s moral famine.

Opinion Pieces, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and Carribean, Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Australian Government, Budget Cuts, Foreign Aid, Tim Costello

What Turnbull Needs To Remember When He Meets Donald Trump

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Travelling in Africa recently with an envoy of German chancellor Angela Merkel, I was struck by the differences that have emerged in the international response to suffering – to the plight of millions of Syrians who have fled six devastating years of war, and now as famine rears its terrible head in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

Opinion Pieces, Foreign Aid, South Sudan, Syria, Tim Costello

How Technology can Make the World a Better Place

Monday, April 17, 2017

Digital moves quickly and we need to move quickly too if we are going to embrace the transformative power of technology in all its compelling applications, for the simple reason that harnessing this power can make the world a better place.

Opinion Pieces, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and Carribean, Middle East, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Claire Rogers, International Development, World Vision

After The Last Famine In Africa The World Said 'Never Again'. Yet Here We Are, Again.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Here we go again: another African crisis with 20 million people on the point of starvation -- hunger from South Sudan and Somalia, to Nigeria and Yemen.

Opinion Pieces, Drought, East Africa, Famine, Kenya, Tim Costello

Syria After Six Years of War a Patchwork of Misery

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

As Syria marks six years of civil war, delegations from Russia, Iran and Turkey have arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan, for a third round of peace talks. Syrian rebel groups have stayed away, blaming Russia's unwillingness to end air strikes against civilians in rebel-held areas and its failure to put pressure on the Syrian army to abide by a widely violated ceasefire.

Opinion Pieces, Syria, Tim Costello