The Australian Government’s decision to again slow a planned increase in the aid budget puts our nation’s long-held, bipartisan promise to the world’s poorest people further out of reach, says international aid agency World Vision Australia.
The Government today announced it would slow the increase of aid in the forward estimates, effectively wiping out $900 million from the aid budget over the next four years.
“For a number of years, the Labor Government has promised to increase our aid budget to 0.5 per cent of gross national income,” Mr Costello said. “But this announcement means the budget will have to jump by $2 billion between 2016 and 2017 to reach that target. That’s a jump of 29 per cent. While not impossible, this decision and the ones that have come before it make that target all the more difficult to reach.”
Today’s decision is the third such announcement in less than 18 months. Around $4.8 billion was removed from the aid budget forward estimates as a result of deferring the 0.5 target in the 2012 and 2013 Federal Budgets, and a further $1.375 billion was diverted to asylum seeker support costs within Australia.
“Raiding Australia’s aid budget to secure a surplus is deeply disappointing,” Mr Costello said. “We cannot ignore the current challenges our economy presents, like slowing growth and revenue write-downs, but we should never, ever balance the books on the backs of the poor.
“Despite much greater economic constraints, the UK Government has been able stick to its plan and lift aid much higher than Australia – to 0.7% of national income.”
Mr Costello said it was time for all parties – including representatives from all sides of politics - to come together to re-establish bi-partisan support for a dependable scale-up of the aid program.
Mr Costello also called on the Government to provide further information about the $400 million aid increase to Papua New Guinea.
“The Government has said this additional $100 million a year will not come from existing PNG aid programs, but we would welcome an explanation of where the money is coming from,” Mr Costello said.
“The reality is that if you keep shuffling money from one part of our aid program to another, you will see an impact on the effectiveness of our aid program. Predictability and certainty are essential elements of any effective aid program.”
Mr Costello said that he is pleased that the Government has committed to protecting the important work being carried out in partnership with Australian NGOs.
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