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.”
About the author
Lisa Cornish@lisa_cornish
Lisa Cornish is a freelance data journalist based in Canberra, Australia. Lisa formerly worked with News Corp Australia as a data journalist for the national network and was published throughout Australia in major metropolitan and regional newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph in Melbourne, Herald Sun in Melbourne, Courier-Mail in Brisbane and online through news.com.au. Lisa has recently been awarded the 2014 Journalist of the Year by the New South Wales Institute of Surveyors.
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