Julie Bishop - Member for Curtin

Coalition committed to foreign aid

Thursday, 20 May 2010

The Coalition remains committed to the Millennium Development Goal target of providing 0.5% of GNI by 2015 for foreign aid, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said today.

Ms Bishop said the Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has taken a partial quote from a speech by the Leader of the Opposition and shamelessly misrepresented his statements.

"The Leader of the Opposition has affirmed the commitment to 0.5% of GNI by 2015 on numerous occasions, but this does not mean unquestioning support for the spending priorities of the Rudd Government," Ms Bishop said.

"There are grave concerns that the Rudd Government will use the foreign aid budget to support Mr Rudd’s campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council.

"Large increases of aid have been allocated in the year of the vote for the UNSC bid, and there has been an increasing Rudd Government focus on Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, where there are large numbers of UN votes.

"The Coalition believes aid from Australian taxpayers should be used efficiently to help improve the standard of living of people in developing countries, and not be diverted for a political campaign for a seat on the Security Council.

“While there is great need for aid in other regions of the world, Australia’s aid focus should be on this region, where it can have the greatest impact.”

Ms Bishop said the Rudd Government has been the most wasteful in Australia’s history and it is disappointing to see it use deliberate misinformation about foreign aid in its desperation to distract attention from its failings.