Bob Geldof takes swipe at Australia's foreign aid cuts

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/bob-geldof-takes-swipe-at-australias-foreign-aid-cuts

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Bob Geldof has attacked the Australian government’s cutting of foreign aid programs, saying that as one of the richest countries in the world it had an “obligation” to help poorer regions.

In a question-and-answer session at the Aids 2014 conference in Melbourne, the Irish singer-songwriter, activist and co-founder of Live Aid said he was dismayed by the refusal of Australian government to invest in foreign aid.

In May the government announced foreign aid spending would be cut by $7.6bn over five years – the biggest savings measure in the budget.

“You are one of the richest countries in the world, despite your own problems,” Geldof told the conference. “The Australian government gave its word – the Australian people gave their word to the poorest people on this planet.”

“You can’t mess with your sovereign promise to the poor, they’re too vulnerable, they’re too weak. You can’t fuck around with your political promise.

“It took Australia a long time to become a lucky country, and you were lucky because you inherited the institutions of a democracy.”

He said Australian mining was deeply invested in Africa, an industry that brought billions of dollars into the Australian economy every year.

But he said Australia was more interested in the Asia-Pacific region and “sucking up to China” than fulfilling what he called an obligation to help countries such as those in Africa.

“The Australian miners are all over Africa – the money it brings into your economy is vast and far greater than any aid you’ll ever give.

The Boomtown Rats singer perhaps became best known for political activism when, in 1985, he organised the fundraising concert Live Aid. The huge concert was held simultaneously in stadiums in the UK and US to raise funds for the famine in Ethiopia.

Geldof was driven to organise the charity fundraiser following the broadcast of a powerful documentary in 1984 that broadcast images of people dying from severe starvation in Ethiopia to the world.

His efforts to raise funding and awareness for Ethiopia and developing countries through Band Aid and later, Live Aid, ultimately saw him knighted. But he has also come under fire for using his celebrity. Some have said he and other celebrities have “hijacked” serious issues such as poverty and the spread of HIV, detracting from the work of aid organisations and governments.

Geldof reflected on his role as a celebrity during the question-and-answer session, saying his activism had “nothing to do with” being a celebrity.

“l just didn’t like that fact that 30 million people were about to die in agony,” he said. “The thing is to get in and help to people, to steer that. I was in pop music, I had access to people and I could gas on about it.”