TEAR Fund condemns Australia’s cut to foreign aid funding

10 September 2013

TEAR Fund condemns Australia’s cut to foreign aid funding

TEAR Fund has hit out at Tony Abbott’s planned cuts to Australian foreign aid as it believes this will increase the burden on New Zealand’s Aid programmes. With Tony Abbott in power, $4.2 billion in Australian foreign aid is set be diverted to road-building projects around Australia's largest city.

TEAR Fund CEO Ian McInnes said, the need in the Pacific is still there and as a responsible neighbour to Pacific nations, New Zealand will be left to fill the shortfall left by Australia. “The planned cuts tell their poorer Pacific neighbours, who depend on Australian and New Zealand aid, that their development needs, their health, their education, their disaster responses are not important and that they can wait, while Australia takes their funding for more roads at home.” Secondly, he said, this cut to spending reneges on a bipartisan pledge to make the benchmark for foreign aid 0.5 per cent of gross national income – “hardly a large sum”.

Mr McInnes said that the excuses used to justify the cuts such as Papua New Guinea is corrupt and AusAID was inefficient, “are not good enough”. “New Zealand and Australian aid are both making excellent headway in the Pacific and afield, raising living standards and responding to disasters in some of the world's poorest nations. Aid money is robustly monitored, he said. “Poor Pacific Islands should not have to wait for Australia's roads to be built before they can expect a basic standard of living.”

Background Information: TEAR Fund
TEAR Fund NZ is a Christian aid and development organisation that works in close partnership with local Christian nongovernment organisations and churches in Asia, Africa, Central and South America. TEAR Fund actively changes the lives of the poor and oppressed through disaster relief, community development and child sponsorship. Assistance and care is always provided without bias or prejudice in terms of race, religion, caste, class, political beliefs or gender.

Website: www.tearfund.org.nz

ENDS

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