Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

The ODA budget within the DFAT allocation includes some very significant shifts in both funding and emphasis. Under the previous government reform occurred to substantially improve both the quality and quantum of Australia's international development assistance. Aid effectiveness depends on both these aspects. It depends on the benefits delivered and the outcomes achieved on a per dollar basis, and it depends on how many dollars are applied. No amount of rhetoric can change that.

In terms of delivery effectiveness—that is, the quality of our aid program dollar for dollar—Australia has been an international benchmark. Last year the independent OECD peer review praised the efficiency, transparency and effectiveness of Australia's aid program. This government has decided to reduce Australia's foreign aid and alter its priorities so there is less importance placed on saving lives and reducing poverty.

Ms Julie Bishop interjecting—

There is no basis for the claim that the government will make Australian aid more effective. Indeed, on the basis that our ODA allocation has been reduced by 12 per cent on this year alone and that every cent of planned growth has been cut, there is no doubt that the effectiveness of an Australian aid will be decreased. Can the minister point to any evidence that cutting aid will provide more effective aid? Can the minister point to any analysis that called for the cuts they are making? The reality is that, with this government's approach, fewer lives will be saved and less will be achieved in terms of improving the health and welfare of those experiencing extreme disadvantage, and that will be the case both in our region and elsewhere.

The government has made much of the shift to an even greater focus on our region—from 86 per cent of all aid assistance to 91 per cent now delivered in the Asia-Pacific. But the reality is that 91 per cent of a severely reduced allocation is substantially less in most cases than what was to be delivered in 2013-14 and beyond. One of the trickiest lines in the government's budget document states that:

Most countries within the Indo-Pacific have received an increase on 2013-14 funding levels.

That is only true because almost every country was first made to suffer a heavy cut in 2013-14. Minister, how many countries in our region will have an increase in support from the allocations in the 2013-14 budget?

Let us consider a few examples in terms of total ODA assistance by partner countries. For the Solomon Islands the 2013-14 budget allocation was $188 million. As a result of the government's cuts the support in this year will only be $168 million, a reduction of $20 million or 13 per cent. Essentially one in every eight dollars is being withdrawn.

I had the privilege of visiting the Solomon Islands last year to mark the 10th anniversary of RAMSI and I saw the direct benefit provided by Australia's aid in health services, water sanitation, local agricultural capacity building and education and training. With one in eight dollars now being withdrawn which of these program areas will be affected?

If we look at our assistance to Timor-Leste, which I also visited as Minister for International Development, the 2013-14 budget allocation was $126 million. It has been cut to $112 million, an 11 per cent reduction. And in 2014-15 it will drop a further 13 per cent to $97 million. Timor-Leste is a country with some very serious development challenges. It is the poorest country in our region, it has the equal-highest rate of child malnutrition in the world and it is hard to understand how anyone can justify a country assistance allocation in 2014-15 that will be 23 per cent lower than what was allocated in 2013-14. Can the minister outline which health, education or child nutrition outcomes will be affected by the cut of one in every five dollars of assistance to Timor-Leste?

Nobody should be under the misapprehension that this government is intending to provide more aid to our region. The aggregate support for our Pacific partners in 2013-14 has been cut by $64 million, or six per cent. The aggregate support for our— (Time expired)

See this speech in context