Outcry over budget aid cuts

#893 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 18 May 2014.

Leaders from a wide range of churches and aid agencies have deplored the Abbott Government’s announcement in Tuesday’s federal budget to cut Australia’s foreign aid spending by $7.6 billion in the five years to 2018.

The Reverend Keith Jobberns, Director of National Ministries for the Baptist churches, said “We can and should be doing more, not less, as a nation for the marginalised and vulnerable across the world. It should be one of our core values.”

The Reverend Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, said international leaders

found it hard to understand why Australia can’t continue to offer effective, practical assistance to disadvantaged communities in other countries: to build economic resilience, to prepare for natural disasters more effectively, and to promote educational opportunities, particularly for girls. Investments in the future prosperity of disadvantaged nations and communities offer a huge return in human wellbeing.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.