Australian Aid

Article summary

• by 2015 we will be spending $8 billion a year on aid
• spending money on aid may not be a good thing as world poverty is decreasing rapidly
• the developing world now has some of the worlds largest economies
• giving money to Indonesia for schools isn't needed as their GDP is larger than ours and they can afford it
• instead of being happy about Indonesia no longer needing our aid we choose to ignore it

The writer makes many valid points about Australias aid program, though world poverty is decreasing the aid we give to other countries is increasing. There are some points though that he misses, when he talks about Indonesia's GDP he must remeber that this doesn't reflect the amount of money put on schools and that even if Indonesia didn't spend money on schools it doesn't nessesarily mean they're spending on less important things. Also when he talks about PNG and says even though we've been giving money to PNG for 40 years they are still no closer to economic sustainibility. The aid we give to PNG isn't meant t make PNGs economy stable but to help the nation's population which a lot of live in small self sustaining villages not used to making money for themselves. I agree that giving too much aid without enough thought doesn't neccessarily cure poverty but aid is still an important thing to do to sustain people not as fortunate as ourselves.

3. Giving more aid to countries like Indonesia and India help us maintain close relations with these countries especially as they are becoming major players on the world stage. Indonesia especially as they (along with China) are our biigest rivals in the region.
Other countries like PNG and islands in the pacific lack a means for many of the population to making a sustainible income. Many other rich nations look after poorer ones in their regions and it could damage our relations with them if we didn't do the same. PNG was part of Australia until 1975 and if we don't look after them then many would see it as a breach of trust and wouldn't trust us later on. Islands in the pacific may aline themselves with Indonesia and may be more hostile to Australian buisness interests.
Giving more aid will help with all these things with only a minor cost to an already rich nation.