Foreign Aid In Australia

Foreign aid aims to reduce poverty and create sustainable economic growth and development in the Indo-Pacific regions whilst promoting Australia’s national interests. Australian aid helps to provide access to safe drinking water for 2.9 million more people and enable 1.4 million more children to enrol in school.

The bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia has a long but fluctuating history as ‘strange neighbours’, based on a traditional stance from Australian parties of Indonesia as the weaker state (Robert and Hadir 2015: 195). The discourse on Australia’s role in East Timor, particularly the intervention as the head of the UN sanctioned INTERFET team, has been praised or criticized depending on the narrative constructed of the events (Maley 2000: 151). Australia’s role in the East Timor crisis began through complicity in its causes, followed by a change in foreign policy which caused a deterioration of the Indonesia-Australia relationship at a time when Indonesia’s new democratic governance should have deepened relations (Sulistiyanto 2010: 125). While Australia and Indonesia have been steadily rebuilding their relationship, especially in regard to security, the

Some of the main reasons why Australia provides foreign aid is to increase advanced systems and technology in other countries, decrease poverty, make other countries more stable generally and financially, etc. Some government and non-government organization like Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), AusAID, World vision, Red cross, etc. also help provide foreign aid to other countries. Australia’s 10 main focus points and the status of achievement for some of the following in providing aid to other countries are towards the following:

Another major aspect this limb deals with is that of Australia’s relationship with the United Nations and other major international organisations .

Though Australia is a powerful country and is considered a main player in the surrounding area yet it is does not hold a primary rank in the global environment. Australia's contribution in military interventions beyond the Asia Pacific is smaller and follows the lead of another country such as the United States. The Australian Defense Force (ADF) has the capability to tackle with the crises in its neighborhood, because of emergence of security concerns constantly from Indonesia and many other smaller states. Australia has adopted a strategy to support and strengthen the presence of United States in the region. This mutual cooperation is very important for Australia as regards economy and security. Its alliance with United States has been due to many reasons.

There are two main perspectives on foreign aid in Australia – are we giving too much or not enough? Foreign aid is given to developing countries, and is necessary to build an environment where policies and infrastructure can be in place to support other sources of finance. Australia is part of the worldwide foreign aid commitment as we value that everyone should have a fair go, and the country plans to give $3.9 billion over 2017 and 2018. We help countries in need by contributing, food, resources, providing financial assistance, exchanging goods, personal time and knowledge. The main types of aid are humanitarian aid, which is disaster relief and emergency aid and development aid, which is a long-term commitment between nations. Australian aid is strongly on development aid particularly focused on the Asia-Pacific region, but it also has a strong commitment to African and South Asia. Interestingly, 90% of Australia’s foreign aid goes to Asia-Pacific countries such as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, because if they build into a developed nation, then we can build trade relations, regional security and partner in defence. This is a polarizing issue that divides the nation due to different views on Australia giving aid, however, a strong foreign aid program is vital for Australia to build successful relations and regional security.

As selfish as it may seem, if you aid a particular country they could possibly help you back. During future wars, third world countries could assist Australians with troops or building weaponry. An example would be the relationship between England and Australia during World War One. England helped Australia with defense from enemies, financial needs and medical tools when Australia was a developing country and Australia repaid them by siding with them in many wars to come.

Ever had that one friend? The one who tries to help, but no matter how hard he tries, he just aggravates the situation. This friend, Steve, insists he is helping, and those around, too, would support that he is indeed helping. But Steve is actually worsening the circumstances. He is like countries who provide foreign aid to less developed countries. Foreign aid, defined as “the international transfer of capital, goods, or services from a country or international organization for the benefit of the recipient country or its population,” can be military, economic, or humanitarian (“Foreign”). It is often granted to less developed countries in order to evoke government reforms or to stimulate economic growth. However, foreign aid neither elicits government reform, nor does it consistently and reliably stimulate economic growth; therefore, the United States should discontinue providing foreign economic aid.

However, the domestic sphere is vital to Australian policy and must be engaged to improve relations with Indonesia. A 2013 survey of the Australian public commissioned by DFAT in 2013 found that 53% of Australian believe Indonesia is not a democracy and 54% believe Australia is right to worry about Indonesia as a military threat (Roberts and Habir 2015: 205). This is worrying as domestic support does effect on Australian foreign policy (Stephens and Gruber 2010: 38) Australian generosity, diplomacy and funding have been the most successful method of deepening relations

Along with New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Singapore, Australia is party to the Five Power Defence Arrangements, a regional defence agreement. A founding member country of the United Nations, Australia is strongly committed to multilateralism and maintains an international aid program which supports around 60 countries today, quite amazing right?Calculations made during 2005-2006 shows that Australia is giving about A$2.5 billion every year to developing countries. Australia ranks 15th overall in the Center for Global Development's 2012 Commitment to Development Index.

The U.S. and Australian alliance share an interest in maintaining the peace and stability in the Asian- Pacific

Save the Children is one of Australia’s largest aid and development agencies dedicated to helping children. They respond by saving lives of children when disasters strike and create lasting change for children and their families through long-term development programs. Save the Children’s mission is ‘to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives’. They have five key values - accountability, ambition, collaboration, creativity and integrity. Their vision is for a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

The purpose of Australian Aid is to help developing countries around the world eradicate poverty and to promote stability and prosperity both in our region and beyond, by providing different types of assistance and financial support. Although Australia receives a number of benefits due to aid, several disadvantages can also arise as a result of this link with different countries.

Australian-Indonesian relations are the foreign relations between the two countries, whether economically, politically, legally or socially. Australian-Indonesian relations involve an interaction in foreign policies between the two nations (Wolfsohn, 1951, p. 68). As long as Indonesia is Australia 's closest and largest neighbor, they are bound to have great international relations. These relations began as early as the 17th century and had only become enhanced with time (Daly, 2003, p. 397). The relationship has been defined by a conjoint growth trade of up to $14 between the years 2011-2012 which reports an increase from the previous economic year (Mark, 2012, p.402). These countries are members of various trade deals such as the ASEAN Regional Forum in addition to having close ties with education, defense, and leadership. Australia 's relationship with Indonesia is crucial, and lack of such could severely bruise the economy, and hence they need to keep united by ensuring the use of widespread media with beneficial input. Australia interacts with Indonesia in a way such as sporting activity, tourism, education, economic policies, youth exchange programs, cultures and above all their diplomacy (Okamoto, 2010, p.241).

Encyclopaedia Britannica defines Foreign aid as ‘the international transfer of capital, goods, or services from a country or international organization for the benefit of the recipient country or its population. Aid can be economic, military or emergency humanitarian’. As of 2015 Australia’s aid budget has fallen to $4 billion from $5.6 billion in 2013 after the 2014 Abbott government cuts which places Australia as the 12th highest country for aid as of 2015. These cuts will mean that Australian aid will be 0.22% of Gross National Income (GNI) of the 2017-18 budget compared to 0.34% of GNI in the 2013-14 budget. Australia under the governmental agency