Australian foreign aid spending is at a record low.
Successive years of cuts have seen our aid budget drop from 0.37 per cent of gross national income in 2013-14 to just 0.21 per cent today.
Successive ministers have blamed a lack of public support for this shrinking commitment, and it’s true that Australians want to see a reduction in the amount we spend helping out overseas.
Lowy Institute research shows the public thinks 14 per cent of the federal budget is spent on aid, and that this should be reduced to 10 per cent. The reality is that last year foreign aid comprised just 0.8 per cent of the budget.
With the government tightening the purse strings, and an electorate supportive of cutbacks, it’s time to put right a major funding anomaly that undermines the integrity of our entire aid program.
Australia has pledged $20m to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) this financial year.
UNRWA was created in 1949 to carry out aid programs for Palestinian refugees.
Although it was only meant to be a temporary solution, the UN General Assembly repeatedly has renewed its mandate, most recently until next June 30.
Recently it was revealed that an internal ethics report found members of the inner circle at the very upper echelons of UNRWA, including chief Pierre Krahenbuhl, had allegedly engaged in misconduct, nepotism, corruption and other serious abuses of power.
Read the article by Jeremy Leibler in The Australian.