Foreign aid

Happy · 15 November 2006

From ABC, November 15, 2006

Costello defends foreign aid figures

The federal Treasurer has rejected reports that Australia is the lowest provider of aid of the G20 nations.
Peter Costello says Australia currently gives $3 billion in aid, which is up 81 per cent over the past six years. He says the figure will continue to rise.
He has told the Macquarie Radio Network there are some G20 nations that do not provide any aid at all.
"There are G20 nations that not only give nothing, but who actually receive aid," he said.
"Australia is not an aid receiver. Australia is an aid giver. There are G20 nations that are subject to aid programs that we are giving money to."
Mr Costello has also called on people planning to protest at this weekend's G20 Summit in Melbourne to do so peacefully.
Global leaders will attend the meeting to discuss economic policy.
Mr Costello says people have the right to demonstrate. But he says he hopes they respect those attending the summit.

And imagine that here would be no queue dental services, probably no waiting lists for elective surgery.

Or imagine how long could be water pipe to fight drought if $3 billion was used for that purpose?

Julia · 15 November 2006

Happy said:
And imagine that here would be no queue dental services, probably no waiting lists for elective surgery.

Or imagine how long could be water pipe to fight drought if $3 billion was used for that purpose?

Couldn't agree more, Happy.

Btw, what are the protestors actually protesting about?
Julia

It's Snake Pliskin · 15 November 2006

China receives aid and sends a man into space. Surely they need it now.

Indonesia recieves aid and what do the populace get?

Rafa · 15 November 2006

I agree, AID to regimes in itself is wrong...
AID should go to charitable bodies, who require it at the grass root level...

I hope thats where Oz's 3bill goes...

But aid giving for aids sake is a joke... and ineffective... it needs to be targetted.

PS: i hope you seriously don't think if we didn't give foriegn aid we would have spent it on hospitals. That is rather naive... I hope no one here is suggesting that the aid in itself should be stopped... Otherwise, its a pretty sad state of affairs!

TraderPro · 16 November 2006

PLUS a lot of "aid" money gets wasted anyway... that's why when you do give money to charity you should find out where the money goes and what percentage of your money actually ends up where its supposed to go.

I heard some charitable organisations give commissions to people who sign you up to their cause and other spend too much on advertising and promotions...

as for aid - just check out Iraq. Didn't USA assign 20 billion (?unsure) for the reconstruction? Most of it just ended up with American construction companies - all they did was subcontract it out - over many levels, at each level taking their cut, while in the end most of the work would have been done by an Iraqi. Also a lot of money just went to security... If you want more info on this - I think the transcript for the interview that I heard this from its on either ABC newsradio or NPR...

Julia · 11 March 2009

Stephen Smith, Foreign Minister, has announced that the ban on aid going to abortion in poor countries, put in place by the Howard government, will be removed. Sensible decision imo.

What I did find interesting about this is that Mr Rudd has opposed this decision, but Mr Smith - to his great credit - has gone ahead anyway.

What do people think of Mr Smith? I find him, along with Lindsay Tanner, much more reasonable and personable than his more senior colleagues. He actually answers questions rather than parrot off the current party line, something both Rudd and Gillard have down to an art form.

Stormin_Norman · 11 March 2009

Happy said:
And imagine that here would be no queue dental services, probably no waiting lists for elective surgery.

Or imagine how long could be water pipe to fight drought if $3 billion was used for that purpose?

yeah, we could buy lots more guns to kill kids in afghanistan with that money.

90% of government spending i bogus, so is 90% of the tax.

Bushman · 11 March 2009

Julia said:
What I did find interesting about this is that Mr Rudd has opposed this decision, but Mr Smith - to his great credit - has gone ahead anyway.

.

Isn't Rudd a bible-basher? They are never keen on birth control and abortion. Wouldn't want to further corrode the strength of the patriarchy

Tanner is a smart man and my local representative.

trinity · 11 March 2009

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25172468-12377,00.html

To date, Australia has provided only humanitarian assistance amid concerns the regime of President Robert Mugabe could somehow swindle foreign aid dollars.

So I wonder what kind of reassurance we have now that the money will not go to Mugabe's pockets?

Glen48 · 11 March 2009

I saw were Haliburton Chaney's old CO. got Fork Lifts from the Iraq Airport after the take over painted them Blue and lease them to USA for 23K a month , 2 months would have paid for them with change.
Also they had bundles of bank notes the troops were using as foot balls and no record kept of where it all went.. Then that was pre-bubble days.
Once again bring religion into politics and you have commonsense out the window.

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