A country's aid budget is generally measured as a proportion of a nation's gross national income (GNI). Australia's total contribution fell to just over $3 billion in 2016, or 0.25 per cent of GNI. This is well below the average of 0.32 per cent of GNI recorded by the 29 OECD countries last year.

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Budget 2016 statement from Lyle Shelton, Managing Director, Australian Christian Lobby



Given Australia is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, it is deeply disappointing that tonight’s budget sees Australia’s overseas aid cut to the lowest in our history.



We are spending just 22 cents per $100 of national income to help the world’s poor.



There is no quarrel with the idea that countries, like families, need to live within their means.



But most of us have mortgages and yet still manage to sponsor a child through child sponsorship and give to our local church’s mission programs helping the poor in developing countries.



Just as we are encouraged to be generous as individuals, so too should our nation.



ACL will use the election campaign period to encourage both sides of politics to begin re-building our aid program.



It remains a great shame to both sides of politics that they walked away from the Millennium Development Goal promise to increase aid to 0.7 per cent of GNI.



ENDS

Paul Bongiorno is a Walkley-award winning political journalist who will be addressing the group Christians for an Ethical Society on the theme “Budget Equity?”.

In this interview he shares his view about the 2015 federal budget and asks how economics can best reflect Christian ethics.

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The Australian Christian Lobby today welcomed reports that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed to the Coalition Party Room that there would be no new cuts to Australia’s overseas aid program in tonight’s federal budget.

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The Australian Christian Lobby has expressed dismay at media speculation that further cuts will be made to Australia’s overseas aid.

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Australia’s aid to poor people overseas should be quarantined from further cuts in this year’s budget, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.

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John Beckett is the National Director for Micah Challenge Australia. ACL’s Katherine Spackman caught up with him at Parliament House as hundreds of young Christians from across Australia were there to meet politicians and advocate for the global poor. Particularly they were there to shine a light on global tax dodging.

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MEDIA RELEASE



Wednesday, May 14th, 2014



Broken promises in last night's budget demean the currency of parliamentarians at a time when public confidence in them is needed more than ever, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.



Managing Director Lyle Shelton said it was profoundly disappointing that the biggest single short term budget cut was to overseas aid and that this was a broken promise.



"That there is no public outcry about the $7.6 billion dollars that will be cut from forward estimates of aid over the next five years demonstrates that consumerism and self interest are sadly more important to us than keeping the promises we have repeatedly made to the world's poor," he said.



Mr Shelton said it was now clear Australia's commitment to the Millennium Development Goals to increase aid as part of a global agreement to halve extreme poverty by 2015 was now all but over.



"A Medicare co-payment has been introduced to build a medical endowment fund to cure first world ills while we break our promise and cut aid to those for whom a doctor's visit would be a luxury,” he said.



"While balancing the books is important, the government painted itself into an untenable position by saying it could reduce expenditure without raising taxes and without cutting key areas.



"It would have been better if these promises had not been made in the first place," he said.

Mr Shelton said decoupling Australia's giving to the global poor from Gross National Income was a broken promise given in writing to the Christian constituency before the election.



"It appears Australia no longer has foreign aid, we have foreign policy. It seems our aid money is directed to countries where we have a political interest," Mr Shelton said.



"It is reasonable that the burden of reducing expenditure has to be shared, but it seems that a disproportionate burden has fallen upon the poor and disadvantaged," Mr Shelton said.



"This sadly says something about our priorities and self interest as a wealthy nation."



Mr Shelton welcomed news that the National School Chaplaincy Program would continue to be funded.



Mr Shelton also gave credit to the government for including funding of $115 million, announced in March, for the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness.



He also said it was pleasing to see funding for the Australian Charities and Not For Profit Commission retained and hoped this was an indication that it may not be abolished as planned.



ENDS

Micah Challenge has recently launched a campaign to expose tax dodging and corruption which is robbing poor nations of vital resources for development.



The vast amount of money developing countries lose as a result of these practices could be better spent providing essential services such as healthcare, education and water to millions of people facing poverty around the world.



Micah Challenge is encouraging people to get on board with this campaign by uploading a 'shine the light selfie' to its campaign website and sending it to their politician to raise awareness of the issue and promote change.



To find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved, visit the official website at shinethelight.com.au.



 



 



 



 



 



 

MEDIA RELEASE



For release: Thursday May 1, 2014



The Australian Christian Lobby is concerned that today’s Commission of Audit report paved the way for a broken election promise on overseas aid.



Managing Director Lyle Shelton said the Coalition made an election promise to boost aid to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income once the budget position improved.



“The Commission of Audit’s recommendation to drop the election promise by de-coupling aid funding from GNI should be rejected,” Mr Shelton said.



“Great Britain, whose budget position is far worse than Australia’s, has already achieved the Millennium Development Goal target of 0.7 per cent,” Mr Shelton said.



“It is disappointing enough that both sides of Australian politics walked away from Australia’s 0.7 per cent MDG promise as part of a push to halve world poverty by 2015.



“A recommendation to now walk away from the election promise to at least reach 0.5pc should be rejected.”



Mr Shelton said ACL was grateful for the Coalition’s response to its traditional pre-election questionnaire and had distributed it electronically to tens of thousands of Christian voters.



“This will be a disappointment to a great many Christians who have been coming to Canberra for years lobbying Australian politicians to keep the nation’s promise to the world’s poor.



“While having a fiscally responsible budget is important, Australia is a very wealthy country compared to most in the world and we should be generous to those suffering extreme poverty.”



Mr Shelton said he hoped any proposal to cap aid would be a temporary measure.