18th December, 2012
Plans to divert millions of dollars from Australia’s foreign aid budget to help pay for the processing of asylum seekers have come under fire from aid and development groups including anti-poverty Christian network, Micah Challenge.
The organisation says the plans – which involve the Gillard Government moving at least $375 million from overseas development programs to help with the costs of supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Australia – would represent an " appalling breach" of the public’s trust.
“The primary purpose of Australia”s aid program is to help people overcome poverty – not as a means of achieving a short-term budget surplus," says John Beckett, Micah Challenge”s national coordinator. "Aid saves lives, and Australia has already helped break the poverty cycle for hundreds of thousands of people across the world."
Mr Beckett says the decision would effectively make Australia the third largest recipient of its own aid program.
“It”s hard to understand why such a decision would be taken, when the Prime Minister, herself, is the co-chair of an international Working Group meant to ensure that countries meet their commitments to help halve global poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015."
Micah Challenge and the 20 Christian aid and development agencies within its coalition are calling for the decision to be reversed immediately.
Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, says he was "stunned by the move".
“This diversion of money is more than just an accounting trick. We know aid saves lives ” the number of children dying each year has nearly halved over the past two decades. If these funds are siphoned away from health programs, it could literally mean the difference between life and death for some of the world”s most vulnerable people, including those in our own region.”
The Federal Opposition have also criticised the move with Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop saying the move sent a poor message to the rest of the world at the start of Australia’s two year seat on the UN Security Council.
Meanwhile Foreign Minister Bob Carr says the use of funds for the local processing of asylum seekers was in line with OECD guidelines on foreign aid. Earlier Senator Carr told Channel Ten, who first broke the story: ”Money spent on refugees within a country is legitimate aid."
The move comes after the Federal Government announced in May that it would delay boosting aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national income until 2016-17 instead of 2015 as had been planned.
– DAVID ADAMS
