Cuts to foreign aid 'another broken promise'

David Wroe

National security correspondent

Aid groups are voicing growing fears that the Abbott government is eyeing further cuts to foreign aid as it searches desperately for budget savings ahead of its mid-year budget update.

Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann are believed to be pressing for cuts to aid spending, which are being resisted by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Foreign aid has already suffered heavily under the Abbott government, losing $7.6 billion over five years in the May budget. Ms Bishop has since restructured Australia's aid program around the new spending levels.

Talk of further cuts is sending ripples of worry through Australian aid organisations.

Marc Purcell, executive director of the Australian Council for International Development, said further cuts would be another broken promise by the government after it already broke its previous pledge to keep aid growth at the rate of inflation.

"Hacking into Australia's aid program yet again would be a broken promise for the Coalition government," he said. "The Treasurer needs to stop hitting the poorest people in the world, which is deeply unfair.

"Twenty per cent of Mr Hockey's budget savings so far have come from Australia's aid program. It's only 1.3 per cent of the federal budget. It's unfair to keep taking from such poor people."

In the May budget, Mr Hockey froze foreign aid at $5 billion a year for the next two years, after which it will resume growth at the inflation rate, generating a massive saving of $7.6 billion over the next five years.

But the government is struggling to pass billions of dollars in other budget savings through the hostile Senate.

Tim O'Connor, a spokesman for UNICEF Australia, said further cuts would put Australia close to the bottom of OECD rankings in aid spending.

"We are extremely concerned that the aid budget will be raided again," he said. "The cuts don't have to go through the Parliament which is why they are an easier target for savings."

He said as one of the few wealthy countries that is largely surrounded by developing countries, Australia had a particular interest in using aid to forge better foreign policy and extend its influence in the region.

"One of the government's strongest areas has been foreign policy," he said. "Cutting into foreign aid really diminishes the opportunity to leverage its interest in foreign policy."

Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the Abbott government was ditching what had been a largely bipartisan approach to the importance of foreign aid in the past.

"Cutting the aid budget contributes to insecurity and instability in our region and around the world," she said. 

In June Ms Bishop unveiled an overhaul of Australia's foreign aid program in a bid to squeeze the best value for money out of the budget available.

Under those changes, a fifth of the aid budget will be geared towards driving economic growth in developing countries - known as "aid-for-trade".

It will also target gender equality, with all aid projects to be assessed each year on how they improve the opportunities of women and girls. The aim will be to have 80 per cent of programs address gender.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/cuts-to-foreign-aid-another-broken-promise-20141202-11ypou.html