More cuts to aid program will impact the futures of thousands of vulnerable children

ChildFund Australia is deeply disappointed to learn that the Australian Government is considering yet another cut to the Australian aid program – at a time when we are already the least generous we have ever been in history. ChildFund CEO Nigel Spence said: “Our overseas development budget has once again been viewed as disposable, and fails to recognise that the Australian Aid program is one of our most important and strategic assets. “Australian aid not only improves conditions for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable children and families, but it serves Australia’s interests by fostering economic growth in the region, creating new markets, building human capital and reducing the risks of conflict and displacement.” The rumoured aid cuts come only days after the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published its review of Australia’s aid program, where it was critical of declining budget levels, despite Australia experiencing ongoing and steady economic growth for over two decades. The OECD warned that this trend must be reversed, stating that it is impairing our development efforts in the Asia-Pacific region. Mr Spence added: “We are living in a period of heightened global uncertainty - a time of worsening conditions for vulnerable children around the globe. These aid cuts will have a direct human cost. For children and young people, it will mean that their access to opportunity, and a way of out poverty, will be further challenged. “With the cuts rumoured to be funding company tax reductions, this really is a case of taking money from the world’s poorest children, who have urgent needs, to benefit wealthy corporations.”