Jun 25, 2014
An "overhaul" of Australia's foreign aid program is largely not new, and fundamentally fails to address the difficult questions on how to make aid more effective. Aid analyst Thulsi Narayanasamy unpacks the policy.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has promised to deliver a dramatically different “new aid paradigm”. But it’s little more than an ideological repackaging of Labor-era aid programs that provides a questionable boost to the private sector. It blatantly aligns aid with Australia’s commercial interests at the expense of genuine poverty eradication measures.
Ultimately, it fails to address the hard questions on aid effectiveness.
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So Bishop is clearly no better than the other neocons in this shoddy and blatantly unfair government….
The Foreign Aid Budget reflects the Abbott Governments approach to all things: Government money is best spent when buying votes in swinging seats.
It sees money spent in foreign lands is wasted money, money that would be better spent bribing voters at home.
It does not see Foreign Aid as a means to reduce human misery, starvation and suffering.
It’s a bit like most people see paying tax: something to minimise.
Abbott spends as little as possible, and targets what is spent so the main benefit is domestic rather than foreign.