AT a IDS guest seminar Andrew Rosser examines how Australian aid policy is made and what impact AusAid can have, given the fact that it is now one of the OECD’s ten largest bilateral donors.
1. IDS Guest Seminar:
The Politics of Australian Aid Policy
Andrew Rosser
Visiting Fellow in the Governance team at IDS and
Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the
University of Adelaide
19 September 2012
Institute of Development Studies
2. Introduction
• Questions:
– What are the main determinants of Australian aid
policy?
– Who are the key actors involved in making Australian
aid policy?
– What have been the key political issues in Australian aid
policy in recent years and how have these been resolved?
– What will Australian aid policy look like in the future?
3. Primer on Australian Politics
Federal and state governments: aid is a federal issue
Bicameral parliamentary system: House of
Representatives plus Senate.
different voting systems
Political parties:
Major parties: Australian Labor Party and the Liberal-
National Coalition.
Minor political parties (e.g. Greens) and independents,
mainly (but not only) in the Senate.
4. Recent federal governments:
Hawke-Keating Labor (1983-1996)
Howard Coalition (1996-2007)
Rudd-Gillard Labor (2007-present)
since 2010 a minority government
Abbott Coalition (2013-onward)??
5. Main Determinants of Australian
Aid Policy
Structural
Structural power of capital has predisposed the
Australian government, regardless of whether it has
been led by the ALP or the Coalition, towards neoliberal
policies. This has extended to the area of aid policy
sector, notwithstanding the fact that it is relatively low
profile.
6. Institutional
AusAID is an ‘autonomous’ agency within the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and
there is no separate Minister for Overseas Development.
So aid policy tends to be heavily influenced by foreign policy
concerns.
7. Aid policy-making has been an executive dominated
process
It has taken the form of Ministerial Statements to parliament,
statements in budget papers, White Papers etc. rather than
laws.
So the government of the day has been able to more or less
hand-pick who writes Australian aid policy. The opposition
and the minor political parties (e.g. Greens) haven’t gotten a
look in.
8. • Foreign Policy Differences Between Major Parties
– Generally, Australian foreign policy has been
characterised by a high degree of bipartisanship.
However:
• ‘The ALP has always seen itself as more open to multilateral
and ‘idealistic’ influences in foreign policy’ while the
Coalition has presented itself as more concerned with
promoting Australia’s national interests, in accordance with
realist thinking in IR (Dalrymple 2003)
9. In aid policy, this has meant:
greater willingness to deliver aid through and engage with
multilaterals (in particular the UN) under the ALP than the
Coalition
greater willingness to broaden the geographic orientation of
the aid program to countries outside Australia’s immediate
region under the ALP than the Coalition;
greater emphasis on the need for Australian aid policy to serve
the ‘national interest’ under the Coalition than the ALP; ALP
by contrast emphasises being ‘a good international citizen’.
10. International Trends in Aid Policy
Australia has tended to be a follower rather than a leader
in the production of development policy ideas
World Bank and DFID in particular have been key reference
points
Disability has been an exception
11. Geo-political/economic Context
Growing levels of affluence in Asia
end of India and China bilateral aid programs
increased concern with promoting development in middle-
income countries
Competition from new donors
12. Key Actors
• The broad parameters of Australian aid policy have
historically been mapped out during major reviews
of the aid program:
– Jackson review: 1983
– Simons review: 1996
– White Paper: 2006
– Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness: 2011
• Key actors in these reviews:
– Orthodox economists
– Representatives from the business community
– DFAT and NGOs much less involved
13. Key Issues
Objective of the aid program
The issue: the relative emphasis on ‘national interest’ vs.
poverty-related concerns.
Downer (1997): the objective of the aid program is ‘to
advance Australia’s national interest by assisting
developing countries to reduce poverty and achieve
sustainable development’.
14. – ALP (2011): ‘The fundamental purpose of Australian
aid is to help people overcome poverty. This also
serves Australia’s national interest by promoting
stability both in our region and beyond. We focus our
efforts in areas where Australia can make a difference
and where our resources can most efficiently and
effectively be deployed’
• What status do the MDGs have in Australian aid
policy?
15. Australian ODA: 1972-2007
0.6
0.5
0.4
Aid as % GNI
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004
16. Size of aid budget
There has been bipartisan commitment to increased aid.
In 2005, PM Howard announced a doubling of the Australian
aid program by 2010.
In the run-up to the 2007 election, the ALP announced that
aid would increase to 0.5 of 1% of GNI, a commitment the
Coalition subsequently matched
17. But this commitment has proven hard to keep
Looking to shore up its economic credentials, the Gillard
government announced in 2012 that it would delay
achievement of the 0.5 target by one year.
The Coalition has indicated a willingness to cut aid when it is
politically expedient.
e.g. proposal to cut Indonesian schools program following
QLD floods.
18. Geographical focus
There is bipartisan commitment to a focus on the Asia-
Pacific
But aid spending on sub-Saharan Africa has been
ramped up dramatically in recent years
also Latin America but to a much lesser extent.
But how far can this go?
The Coalition has indicated some doubt about this shift.
19. Sectoral focus
Growth vs. education and environment
Aid delivery mechanisms
21. If Abbott, Then What?
Ideological orientation of aid program
unlikely to change dramatically but possibly some
scepticism towards whatever replaces the MDGs
Objective of the aid program
likely to be a reassertion of ‘national interest’ concerns
22. Size of the aid budget
The Coalition is formally committed to the 0.5 target.
But it will almost certainly be looking to make cuts to
government spending if it wins office
My guess is that, in the absence of a major economic
downturn, the Coalition will meet the 0.5 and the out
things on hold for a while. Thereafter, they’ll follow
international trends
23. Geographical orientation of the aid program
aid to Africa likely to stay because
of concerns about reputational damage if it withdraws and
growing wealth in Asia. The latter raises very difficult
questions about how Australia engages with Asia and the role
of aid in this process.
This issue has already been discussed at the Shadow cabinet
table
but.......
24. Institutional
Current coalition policy is to create new Ministerial
appointment in Overseas Aid (not clear if senior or
junior) but not upgrade AusAID to department status
Sectoral focus
Reassertion of economic growth