Joe Hockey 'playing Scrooge' with foreign aid cuts, says Save the Children
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Version 0 of 1. Aid organisations have slammed the distribution of cuts made to the foreign aid portfolio in Tuesday’s budget, labelling them nasty, stingy and regressive. The budget spelled out where previous cuts made to the portfolio, totalling $11.3bn since the Coalition took office, would fall. A number of nearby countries including Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos had their aid programs slashed by 40%. Aid organisation said the Asia-Pacific region had high levels of poverty and should not be overlooked. “In this budget Australia has defined itself as a wealthy country but a stingy neighbour,” Matt Tinkler, director of policy at Save the Children, said. “Joe Hockey is really playing the role of Uncle Scrooge.” “This budget is one of the great acts of isolationism ... and makes us a second-rate aid donor,” head of ActionAid, Archie Law, said. “It portrays us as a nasty, self-interested country.” Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Nauru – countries with which Australia has refugee resettlement deals – escaped with small or no reduction to their programs. “The government is now using more aid money to advance Australian business interests and domestic policies. In the case of Cambodia and Nauru, aid funding is being used as a bargaining chip for Australia’s border protection policy,” Greens senator Lee Rhiannon said. Nepal, suffering after two devastating back-to-back earthquakes, will maintain all existing programs. The biggest cuts in proportionate terms came from the relatively modest budgets of Middle East and North African programs, which received a cut to 82% of their programs. “The slashing of assistance to Africa is a particularly regressive step,” Plan International Australia chief executive Ian Wishart said. “The government should be directing aid to the poorest communities, which includes East Africa.” Joe Hockey said he would have liked to have done more. “We couldn’t afford to do what Labor wanted to do on foreign aid. I know that’s hard. But we couldn’t afford to do it and we’ve had to make cuts,” Hockey said. “What Julie Bishop has rightly done, is look at how we can get better bang for our buck in foreign aid.” |