BREAKING: Yesterday, less than 48 hours before voting begins, Joe Hockey announced that if the Coalition is elected, it will cut $4.5 billion from the aid budget over the next four years.1 This would be one of the most damaging cuts to foreign aid in recent memory. It is yet another broken promise to the world’s poor, and to the Australian people. When Australia committed itself to the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, we agreed to scale up foreign aid funding to 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015 – that’s 50 cents in every $100. For the first time since that historic agreement, foreign aid is set to fall if the Coalition is elected, and if this policy is enacted. At Caritas Australia, we are deeply concerned by this proposal.2 $4.5 billion could save up to 450,000 lives,3 and means that the world’s poorest will miss out. Again. The proposed cuts by the Coalition represent yet another broken promise to the world’s poor. Over the last few months, Australians have been shouting loud and clear that we want a Government that delivers a generous and effective aid budget. Just last weekend, 3000 people from Mr Abbott’s electorate gathered on Manly Beach to give him this message.4 More than 85,000 Australians have signed the Movement to End Poverty petition, coming from every electorate across the nation.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 06:54:54 +0000
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