9 February 2007
AUSTRALIA’S AID DECEIT
The announcement of the release of the last of the refugees held on Nauru coincided with the revelation reported in the "Melbourne Age" that $160 million spent on ‘migration management’ last year (mainly to imprison the two detainees on Nauru) came from Australia’s overseas aid budget.
The further revelations that $668 million of aid to Iraq was actually cancellation of interest owed by that country and the $235 million spent on peacekeeping in the Solomon Islands were recorded as aid showed that "Australians were being deceived into thinking their aid was increasing" according to Kate Wheen a co-director of AID/WATCH "If the public perception is that aid should alleviate poverty, then this is a massive deception about how our aid is being used” Ms Wheen added.
In the meantime two leading international Catholic development networks are targeting the world's richest and powerful countries with a campaign to "make aid work" which aims to ensure that international leaders meet promises to eliminate poverty in the world's poorest countries.
The Caritas Internationalis and International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE) networks yesterday launched the new campaign "Make Aid Work. The World Can't Wait" which aims to mobilise one billion Catholics to urge the world's most powerful leaders to keep promises made at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005.
In Australia the Make Poverty History website is running a campaign encouraging people to send an e-card to Federal parliamentarians asking them to do more to address global poverty in 2007 by allocating additional funding to overseas aid in the Federal budget.
The further revelations that $668 million of aid to Iraq was actually cancellation of interest owed by that country and the $235 million spent on peacekeeping in the Solomon Islands were recorded as aid showed that "Australians were being deceived into thinking their aid was increasing" according to Kate Wheen a co-director of AID/WATCH "If the public perception is that aid should alleviate poverty, then this is a massive deception about how our aid is being used” Ms Wheen added.
In the meantime two leading international Catholic development networks are targeting the world's richest and powerful countries with a campaign to "make aid work" which aims to ensure that international leaders meet promises to eliminate poverty in the world's poorest countries.
The Caritas Internationalis and International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE) networks yesterday launched the new campaign "Make Aid Work. The World Can't Wait" which aims to mobilise one billion Catholics to urge the world's most powerful leaders to keep promises made at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005.
In Australia the Make Poverty History website is running a campaign encouraging people to send an e-card to Federal parliamentarians asking them to do more to address global poverty in 2007 by allocating additional funding to overseas aid in the Federal budget.
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