Greens pledge huge aid program boost

The Australian Greens want to re-establish AusAID and increase the foreign aid budget to 0.7 per cent of national income.

Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon

The Greens want to increase Australia's foreign aid by nearly $8 billion over the next four years. (AAP)

The Greens want to increase Australia's foreign aid contribution by nearly $8 billion over the next four years.

Its plan increases overseas aid to 0.7 per cent of gross national income, compared to the 0.23 per cent that exists now.

Under the coalition government the aid budget has plummeted to its lowest rate with $3.8 billion committed for the 2016-17 financial year.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon says her party would pay for increased aid with measures such as a millionaires' tax, a crackdown on multinational tax avoidance and negative gearing, a mining tax and bank levy.

Senator Rhiannon also announced the party wants to separate the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from AusAID.

The two agencies were merged after the 2013 election as a budget savings measure.

"Aid is the poor cousin in DFAT now - the aid budget is being robbed left, right and centre for a whole lot of DFAT work," Senator Rhiannon told AAP.

There had been a loss of knowledge and expertise in the aid program as well as independent decision making since the merger.

Senator Rhiannon confirmed the budget office had not costed the policy of re-establishing a separate aid agency, but she expected it to be revenue neutral initially.

The peak aid organisation group, the Australian Council for International Development, welcomed the Greens' aid plan.

"The 10-year timetable to reach 0.7 per cent of gross national income for Australia's aid program really sets the Greens apart from the two major parties," chief executive Marc Purcell said in a statement.

World Vision chief executive Tim Costello said three years of successive cuts under the coalition had slashed $11 billion from the aid budget, pushing it to its lowest level in Australian history.

"There are now four parties from the right to the left with concrete plans to rebuild the aid budget, from Bob Day's Family First through to the Nick Xenophon Party, to the ALP and now the Greens," he said in a statement.

AID BUDGET POLICIES:

* The government reduced the foreign aid budget by a further $224 million for 2016-17, bringing official aid to $3.8 billion. From 2017-18 there will be a gradual increase in overall aid support. In four years the aid budget is projected to return to $4.1 billion a year.

* Labor has pledged to reverse $224 million in cuts to the foreign aid budget. It has also promised to reverse $30 million in annual cuts to Australian non-government aid agencies.

* Greens want to boost Australia's aid commitment to the UN target of 0.7 per cent of national income at a cost of $7.97 billion over four years.

* Independent senator Jacqui Lambie would like to see foreign aid for overseas disasters diverted to Tasmanian flood victims.


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Source: AAP


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