CLOSE
Featured
  • Tas: Ask your MP to delay this week's debate
  • WA: Vote for Christian values this election
  • Protect your religious freedom from attack today
Issues
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Freedoms & Public Christianity
  • Life
  • Family
  • Sexualisation of Society
  • Poverty and Justice
Take Action
  • Volunteer
  • Events
  • Prayer
  • Apply to GPS
  • WA: Vote for Christian values this election
Australian Christian Lobby
Tas: Ask your MP to delay this week's debate WA: Vote for Christian values this election Protect your religious freedom from attack today
Menu
Sign In
Donate

Pages tagged "foreign aid"


You won’t believe how little our nation cares for the global poor

Posted on Blog by Lyle Shelton · September 05, 2017 3:01 PM

In Federal Parliament yesterday, Labor MP Graham Perrett moved a motion calling on the Federal Government to restore funding for overseas aid.

Read more

What will it take for us to be truly pro-life?

Posted on Blog by Lyle Shelton · May 16, 2017 4:41 PM

The debate about late term abortion in this nation is over.

But the debate about the sanctity of human life still rages.

Read more

Why this could be the last of our cuts to aid

Posted on Blog by Lyle Shelton · May 10, 2017 3:05 PM

Comments today by Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison that he would like to see foreign aid money increase in future budgets are commendable, sending a positive message about our nation’s desire to be generous to the world’s poor, according to the Australia Christian Lobby.

Read more

How our budget continues to fail the world’s poor

Posted on Blog by Lyle Shelton · May 09, 2017 2:37 PM

Our budget is a moral document. It is how we as a people decide to spend our collective money.

Read more

Why we should not divert our overseas aid from the poor

Posted on Blog by Lyle Shelton · May 08, 2017 2:03 PM

The Australian Christian Lobby has expressed concern with reports the federal government plans to redirect foreign aid money from the poor to bolster anti-terrorism efforts in tomorrow’s Federal Budget.

Read more

Abortion services are not the solution to poverty and stability in our region

Posted on Blog by Elisabeth Taylor · March 21, 2017 1:10 PM

In times past, Australia was often known as the ‘Lucky Country’.  We are a generous country, a generous people and proof of this has played out time and time again.  When someone is facing hard times, we, Australians, want to help.  Yet, over recent years we have failed to deliver on our promise of foreign aid.

Read more

Will generous justice for the global poor be delivered in the May budget

Posted on Blog by Gary Kleyn · February 24, 2017 1:12 PM

As the Government frames the May budget, the Australian Christian Lobby has repeated calls for it to meet our foreign aid funding promises to the poor, particularly in light of the genocide against religious minorities in the Middle East and Africa. 

Read more

Labor does right thing on aid but forgets its base

Posted on Blog by Lyle Shelton · May 23, 2016 4:25 PM

Labor’s election pledge to reverse years of cutting overseas aid by both sides of politics has been welcomed by the Australian Christian Lobby.

Read more

For politics to work, trust is vital

Posted on Blog · May 08, 2014 10:00 AM
Parliament_House_Canberra_(281004929)One of the disappointing features of modern politics is that it is almost expected that promises will not be kept.



There is a desperate need for public respect to be restored to our political class.



Their work on our behalf is too important to be traduced.



The Abbott Government looks set to break its promise about no new taxes with the so-called deficit levy.



Financial responsibility is of course vital and our generation must not be leaving a burden for the next.



The small target strategy of political campaigning means that both sides approach elections by trying to be as small a target as possible.



In the last campaign, this meant that the Coalition made promises about reigning in government expenditure with the unrealistic expectation that this could be done without cuts to key areas or tax rises.



With the budget approaching next week, this is exposed.



An election promise that was broken last week with little media fanfare was on overseas aid.



Both Labor and the Coalition have for years been crab-walking away from its Millennium Development Goal promise to raise our overseas aid to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015.



But before the election, the Coalition promised to raise aid to 0.5 per cent of GNI, although it could not say when it would get there.



Last week it was announced that aid would be de-coupled from GNI and capped at $5 billion.



This means that our generosity to the world’s poor cannot grow as our nation’s prosperity grows. It is a breach of an election promise.



All of us make commitments at times that we need to retract because of changed circumstances sometimes beyond our control.



But this should be accompanied by repentance and humility.



Parliamentarians are trapped by a merciless ‘gotcha’ style of journalism and public discourse which leaves little room for these concepts.



The apathy of most people towards politics also facilitates this unreal discourse.



And when it comes to an issue like aid – designed to help people overseas in extreme poverty – our preoccupation with our own prosperity means a promise like this can be breached with very little political consequence.



Labor’s seemingly unwillingness to pursue the Government on this suggests it is complicit in the decision to scale back our aid promise. It certainly deferred billions of dollars of promised aid in the past two budgets.



Principled public leadership is hard but we must find a way to see it restored in our political culture.



This should be a priority of all involved in public life. The next generation will thank us if we achieve it.

Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Twitter Sign in with Email


Get instant access to news about political issues facing christians
Get Involved
Donate Volunteer Survey
Australian Christian Lobby
Who we are
Media
Submissions
Contact Us
Privacy Policy

Authorised by Martyn Iles
Australian Christian Lobby
4 Campion Street, Deakin ACT
Australia 2600

© 2021

Follow @ACLobby on Twitter