The head of World Vision Australia says the federal government is spending too much foreign aid on fulfilling its foreign policy goals, and not enough on reducing poverty.
The charity's chief executive, Tim Costello, is calling on the government to increase aid spending by about $300 million to $700 million a year by 2010.
And he wants to see less of it spent on failed states in the South Pacific islands, and on immediate crises.
"These are balancing acts, and the great bulk of poverty in our region is still in South-East Asia."
Mr Costello says; "We can get the aid balance right, both within the existing amount of aid we give, but preferably by actually increasing the size of the aid pie, increasing it to levels that the British and the Europeans have."