Australians think 13% of the budget given to foreign aid, which is about 14 times higher than the actual figure

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Australians mistakenly believe the federal government gives 13% of the budget to foreign aid, about 14 times higher than reality, a new poll has found.

The national poll for Campaign for Australian Aid asked 1,528 Australian adults how much of the federal budget was spent on foreign aid. The average of responses was 13.28%, compared with the actual level of 0.9% of the federal budget. The aid budget totals 0.25% of gross national income.

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Only 19% of people estimated the aid budget correctly, choosing less than 1% of the budget.

When asked what proportion of the federal budget they would dedicate to international aid if it were up to them, the average of responses was 10.34%.

The figure was significantly higher than Australia’s actual aid budget but about 3% less than what respondents thought was spent, suggesting they proposed to cut the aid budget.

The Coalition government has cut $1.1bn from the foreign aid budget to date, a figure that will rise to an $11bn cut over 10 years due to its decision to defer Labor’s plan to increase foreign aid to 0.5% of gross national income and tie the aid budget to inflation rather than national income.

Campaign for Australian Aid’s campaign director, Tony Milne, said: “Most Australians don’t realise we provide less than 1% of Australia’s annual budget to aid. This is not surprising as governments and politicians have often failed to adequately promote the benefits of aid and of building a fairer world.”

In the upcoming 3 May federal budget, the Australian government is slated to cut $224 million from aid.

“If treasurer Scott Morrison doesn’t reverse the scheduled cuts, Australia will become the least generous we’ve ever been in terms of providing aid,” Milne said.

“Cuts to the aid program have seen a range of life-saving projects in poverty-stricken locations cancelled and closed with catastrophic consequences for the world’s poorest communities.”

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In a statement children’s development NGO Plan said due to budget cuts over the past three years it has been forced to discontinue or cancel nine projects operating in Bangladesh, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Cambodia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia.

These included projects to combat child marriage, build kindergartens and help children cope with climate change.

The biggest aid cuts in last year’s budget were to spending in east Asia, which lost 36% of its funding; south and west Asia, which lost 38%; and Africa and the Middle East, which lost 63%. Spending in the Pacific was less affected by cuts, losing 6%.

Plan education expert Katherine Fell said: “Since 2012, I’ve managed an education project in Ethiopia, a country where just 5% of children go to preschool. We built 27 kindergartens and established mobile donkey libraries from a budget of $1.2m.

“This project reached 5,000 children and adults in very poor regions where there were no kindergartens. Aid cuts led to this project being cancelled.

“All we need is $600,000 to run all 27 kindergartens for three years – long enough to sustainably hand over responsibility, running and upkeep of kindergartens to local communities.”

