Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Australian Foreign aid to Indonesia to be slashed


 

Aid to Indonesia will be considerably cut by the Abbott government in next week's budget, but is unlikely to be directly linked as retribution to the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The aid budget will face the biggest cut to its programs in Australia's history as it is slashed by $1 billion. This is expected to affect assistance offered to Indonesia – Australia's largest aid beneficiary that was offered $605.3 million last year.

The cuts are so significant that Fairfax Media understands ambassadors from African countries including Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Angola and Ethiopia pleaded to the joint standing committee on foreign affairs and aid not to cut aid to their impoverished nations during a meeting in March.

A Liberal MP who was present at the meeting confirmed that the ambassadors addressed the members of the committee, saying they "implored" the government not to cut aid to their countries due to the extreme levels of poverty.

The director of the Australian Council for International Development, Marc Purcell, said the government would have to walk a thin line in how they present the aid cuts, particularly to Indonesia.

On one hand, the majority of the Australian public want Indonesian aid to be affected, but on the other hand Australia has to maintain its diplomatic relationship with Indonesia, he said.

"The facts are that aid to Indonesia was always going to be cut in this forthcoming budget as part of the $1 billion cuts announced by Joe Hockey," Mr Purcell said.

He said Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had been placed between a "rock and a hard place".

"There is a segment of the public baying for retribution by cutting the aid," he said. "But it could also risk diplomatic relations with Indonesia if it is misjudged."

He also predicted that aid to Africa would be "gutted" in the budget.

Yet the massive reductions are not anticipated to touch any country that offers the processing or resettlement of asylum seekers and refugees, academics have predicted. This includes Papua New Guinea, which is Australia's second largest receiver of aid, receiving $577.1 million last year. It also includes Nauru and Cambodia.

Robin Davies, research fellow for the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva said no matter how big the cuts are in Indonesia, the government will find itself in a bind.

"It will certainly be seen in some areas as retribution," he said. 

"I'm not sure the government will be too concerned if it is seen as retaliation." 

Professor Stephen Howes, the director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University, said the lack of public awareness to the extent of the cuts to aid could lead many people to believe that Australia had cut aid to Indonesia as retaliation.

"This is the biggest cut to aid ever... it is certain that aid to Indonesia will be cut." SMH

 

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