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May 9th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The federal government has rejected claims its broken promise on foreign aid may damage Australia’s bid for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) seat.
The government this week abandoned a pledge to raise aid spending to 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015/16, in a bid to get its 2012/13 budget back in surplus.
Labor has pushed the deadline back by one year, saving it almost $3 billion over the next four years.
Charities are outraged by the move announced in the budget on Tuesday, with some suggesting it will make Australia’s uphill battle to win a temporary seat on the UNSC much harder.
Asked on Wednesday if the government was kissing the bid goodbye, Treasurer Wayne Swan told reporters, “No, not at all.
“We are increasing the money that’s available for aid, but we’re doing it at a slower pace and only a slightly slower pace.”
The aid budget will still increase by more than $300 million to about $5.15 billion in 2012/13, but the GNI ratio will remain static at 0.35 per cent.
Australia’s aid spending has been a key component of the government’s UNSC campaign, which will culminate in a UN General Assembly vote later this year.
The campaign motto is “Australia: We Do What We Say”.
Australian Greens Leader Christine said the government’s decision on aid had made a joke of that claim.
“We have promised in the international community we will meet 0.5 by 2015 and now we’re not going to,” she told the Senate.
But Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Australia’s good reputation among developing nations was intact.
“I think the world respects a nation that despite the pressures of the economic situation finds the money to increase its aid budget as we’ve done,” he told Senate question time.
The Greens have laid the blame for the cuts at Senator Carr’s feet, saying his predecessor Kevin Rudd would never have allowed such a move.
Mr Rudd – who was a strong advocate of increased aid spending and also spearheaded the UNSC campaign – has declined to comment publicly on the changes.
Save the Children’s aid policy adviser Nicole Cardinal called on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to use his budget reply speech to re-commit the coalition to the 2015/16 target.
But coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop says Labor’s broken promise this year means it will be “impossible” to achieve the target by 2015.
“The coalition remains committed to a foreign aid budget equivalent to 0.5 per cent of GNI,” she said, but did not specify a timeline.
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