DAVID ADAMS reports on reaction from refugee and humanitarian advocacy groups to Tuesday’s Federal Budget…
Refugee and humanitarian aid advocates have labelled this year’s Federal Budget as “mean-spirited” and “short-sighted” for what they see as its failure to respond to the world’s growing humanitarian crises.
Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, says cuts in the overseas aid budget and a failure to reverse cuts made in 2013 to the refugee and humanitarian program budget would show Australia was “indifferent” to humanitarian crises unfolding in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
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PICTURE: www.freeimages.com “This budget is mean-spirited to the world’s refugees, it continues to demonise asylum seekers who are Australia’s responsibility, it will inflame tensions with the region and continues to undermine our global reputation as a generous global citizen.”– Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia |
“This Budget is mean-spirited to the world’s refugees, it continues to demonise asylum seekers who are Australia’s responsibility, it will inflame tensions with the region and continues to undermine our global reputation as a generous global citizen.”
As anticipated, funding to Australia’s overseas aid budget was reduced by a further $1 billion, totalling $11.3 billion in cuts since the election of the Abbott Government.
And while that sees aid to Asia significantly reduced and that to Africa slashed, the RCOA point out that it has not been reduced to Nauru, Papua New Guinea or Cambodia – all nations involved in Australia’s program of sending asylum seekers and refugees offshore.
The number of resettlement places for refugees is set to remain at 13,750 places, 6,250 fewer than in 2012-2013, with increases not planned until 2017-2018.
Misha Coleman, executive officer of the Australian Churches’ Refugee Taskforce, says the Budget papers reveal the costs of the government’s offshore processing came in at $913 million, well above the projections of $827 million.
Attacking the cuts to the foreign aid budget, Ms Coleman said that by cutting aid to countries like Vietnam, “we only increase the poverty and misery that force people to flee from these”.
“Vietnamese boat people are still coming, despite the illegal response by the Australian Government to send these boats back – as they did a couple of weeks ago to 26 asylum seekers from Vietnam. We still have no idea what happened to those people when they arrived back – we have to assume the worst.”
The Australian Christian Lobby is suggesting that some of the millions being saved from closing immigration centres – including centres on Christmas Island and in Darwin – be reallocated to funding an increased refugee intake.
Managing director Lyle Shelton says the money would be used to help fund places for people from persecuted religious minorities fleeing the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
“Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims are among the religious minorities suffering the most,” he says. “Now that people smuggling has stopped, Australia should help some of the victims of religious cleansing.”
While welcoming news that the foreign aid budget had not be cut any further than the additional $1 billion in cuts previously announced, he notes that aid to Indonesia and Africa had been slashed and that Australia has “dismally failed” to reach the Millennium Development Goal target of 0.7 of gross national income.
“Our current contribution stands at 0.22 per cent GNI and meeting the MDG promise of 0.7 per cent looks increasingly impossible.”
The Micah Challenge coalition “strongly condemned” the cuts to the aid budget confirmed in the Budget. National coordinator Ben Thurley said the previously announced cuts, which would see $3.7 billion stripped from the foreign aid budget over the next three years, were a “deeply ungenerous and short-sighted act”.
“The world’s most vulnerable people are yet again being asked to pay for our government’s skewed priorities as it balances its budget on the backs of the poor…” he said. “At a time when Australian has a growing economy worth $1.6 trillion and the sixth lowest debt in the world, it is shameful that we making such savage cuts to aid.”
World Vision chief executive Tim Costello says the government’s decision to go ahead with the $1 billion of previously announced cuts to the foreign aid budget – a move which has seen Australia’s aid to a number of Asian countries including Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh cut by 40 per cent, has put lives at risk in our region of the world.
“It seems incredible that we should be willing to undermine the stability and security of our own region, hitting the area of closest and most immediate need and undermining our chances for future prosperity,” he says.
He says the decision to “destroy” Australia’s aid program to Africa was equally devastating with news that the only Australian Government funds going to Africa will be used to fund a scholarship program.
“So many countries in Africa still have such massive and immediate needs in basic health and primary education – I don’t understand how we can decide that it is OK to shrink our aid to a tertiary scholarship program.”
Meanwhile, the ACL says it was disappointing there is nothing in the budget for single income families who don’t benefit from increases to the child care rebate. “An income splitting initiative would have been fairer and eased living pressures on families by doubling the tax free threshold per couple and reducing the marginal tax rate,” says Mr Shelton.
The ACL also noted a commitment of $450 million to fight home-grown extremisim and $750 million for military operations to fighting the Islamic State in the Middle East.
~ www.refugeecouncil.org.au
~ www.arct.com.au
~ www.acl.org.au
~ www.micahchallenge.org.au
~ www.worldvision.com.au
