Australia's smaller budget for Pacific.

Updated May 12, 2010 17:06:57

Indonesia and Africa are receiving increases in aid from Australia, after the country's Federal budget was unveiled. Australia says the Pacific remains a priority .. but Bob McMullan, Australia's Parliamentary secretary for development assistance, says the region's share of the cake will likely be smaller. Australia has also announced it's reviewing the use of technical advisors in delivering aid .. a practice that's given rise to criticisms about aid rebounding to Australian pockets, and a long-standing concern of both Mr McMullan and the Foreign minister Stephen Smith.

Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speakers: Stephen Smith, Australia's foreign minister; James Goodman, spokesman, Aidwatch; Bob McMullan, Australia's Parliamentary secretary for international development assistance

MOTTRAM: Delivering an aid budget but that's up from three-point-eight Billion dollars to four point three Billion for 2010-11, Australia's Foreign affairs minister Stephen Smith said he was pleased.

SMITH: Since we came to office, we've effectively increased the development assistance budget by one-point-two Billion dollars and we are on track in a sensible, managed scaled way to get to our election commitment, which is to increase our development assistance to zero-point-five per cent of gross national income by 2015-16.

MOTTRAM: And he's fending off complaints by aid groups about the three new aid programs designed to help meet Australia's international pledge to help poor countries adapt to climate change.

SMITH: There are a mix of sources from where our climate adaptation and mitigation comes. Some of our adaptation and mitigation comes from our development assistance, but it's new money, it's additional money. It is not cutting away from any of the existing programs.

MOTTRAM: Okay, so you're not taking from an existing program, but it is coming out of budgeted ODA?

SMITH: Well some of it is climate adaptation, some is mitigation. I think there are two key points. Firstly, it's additional money, it's new money, but secondly, the target of our climate change financing are low income developing countries, particularly in our own backyard, so far as the Pacific is concerned, the small Pacific Island nation states.

MOTTRAM: But criticism of what aid groups say is 119-Million dollars for such programs in 2010-11 has only intensified.

GOODMAN: Totally inadequate, and secondly driven by self-interest.

MOTTRAM: James Goodman is the spokesman for the aid advocacy group, Aidwatch.

GOODMAN: It is nought-point-nought-nought-one-six per cent of 75 Billion that the World Bank says is needed. So clearly Australia is not living up to its responsibilities.

MOTTRAM: More generally, aid to PNG and the Pacific has fallen slightly as a proportion of the overall aid budget as it increases. The Parliamentary secretary for development assistance Bob McMullan says the region remains a priority .. but envisages further proportional falls.

McMULLAN: I think it is hard to imagine the Pacific being as big a percentage of our aid program in six years as it is now. Remember the aid budget is going to double by 2015. It's hard to see aid to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific overall doubling, because I am not sure that PNG wants our aid to double and they are the big, they are nearly half what we do.

MOTTRAM: Like the rest of this year's Australian budget, there are no big new headline grabbing programs in aid. Though Bob McMullan says the decision to push ahead quickly with establishing a Pacific Islands Centre for Public Administration, in conjunction with the University of the South Pacific is also critical.

McMULLAN: That's a major thing, this is not a minor thing. We regard this as quite important. We have been working on it or six actually before forum leaders meeting, but we're now I think ready to go forward in some detail. It is one of a number of things that we are doing, not just in the Pacific, but around the world about leadership. We think that one of key drivers of successful development is building strong leadership and it's not for us to say what areas people are trained should necessarily apply their leadership in, hospitals need leadership, schools need leadership. There is political leadership, there is business leadership and we're trying to do a whole range of things and this is to strengthen the public administration leadership now and into the future.

MOTTRAM: Continuing concern over whether Australian aid is delivered effectively, especially as the size of the budget increases, is also reflected in the budget announcement of a review into the use of technical advisers .. after years of criticism that the practice can sap big dollars and line contractors pockets. Stephen Smith again.

SMITH: It has been a feature of Australian development assistance. It may be that in more recent times, there has been an over-reliance upon it, so may be I am not proposing to prejudge or determine the review, but it may be one of the outcomes is that we look at other ways of delivering capacity building.