It was a night of few surprises for Australia’s development sector as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison delivered their first budget to the Australian people for the period 2016-17.
As forecasted, the Turnbull government cut Australia’s official development assistance by another 224 million Australian dollars ($173 million), resulting in $AU11 billion in cumulative budget cuts over the last few years. The new aid budget has been called Australia’s least generous ever.
“We have to remain hopeful that this will be the last cut and that our country can restore the proud bipartisan support for aid,” said Paul O’Callaghan, CEO of Caritas Australia. “Certainly, existing cuts have already damaged our global reputation, and aid is at its lowest level ever, so we’d hope all parties could see that there’s no more room to cut.”