Yesterday Treasurer Joe hockey announced that next year’s international aid budget would be slashed by $1 billion. This decision marked much more than the cutting of the aid budget. It marked the end of the idea that Australia could play a significant role in bringing extreme poverty to a...
Julie Bishop’s tortuous logic on foreign aid
Tony Abbott, Aid and the National Interest
The Greens are currently running a campaign that declares “Tony Abbott has removed poverty reduction from the goals of the aid budget.” My politics lean more toward the Greens than the Coalition, but this campaign is outrageously misleading. This was the stated objective of...
Selling Out the Poor for a Few Kilometres of Bitumen
Good on you Joe, you have traded the opportunity to end extreme poverty for millions for a few extra kilometres of bitumen.
A Bigger Vision for Who We Can Be
It seems that the major parties are leading us into a time of turning our backs upon our global neighbours. We are witnessing a race to the bottom on asylum seekers, both parties are pulling back on their previous commitments to increasing aid, and there is fading resolve to lead on combating...
Foreign Aid. We Can Be Better Than Average
When in Cambodia fifteen months back I visited a remote community where the organisation I work for, Baptist World Aid Australia, was funding a community development project. The project will make a huge difference in the lives of the villagers through things like improved crop yields and better...