Michael Walter. Australia’s Catholic bishops call for an increase in our intake of refugees, immediate closure of offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, and for all of us to build communities which welcome and support asylum seekers. As a nation, we are not doing enough for asylum seekers, according to the Catholic bishops in […]
Bruce Duncan. During his July trip to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay, some of the poorest countries in Latin America, Pope Francis has voiced the anguish and concerns of millions of people who are struggling to rise out of severe poverty and marginalisation, yet who are “exploited like slaves”. Speaking to a crowd of two million […]
Bruce Duncan. To save the Coalition ship from the electoral shoals, the government has moderated its hard-line neoliberal rhetoric, but has added to the pain inflicted on low-income groups. Faced with plunging opinion polls and likely defeat at the next election, the Abbott government has abandoned the debt-crisis rationale of its first budget and tried […]
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis has repeatedly called for increased social and economic equity in the world, and reiterated the critique of neoliberal economics very strongly. Now he is about to issue an encyclical, the highest form of Church teaching, on the need to reduce carbon emissions and global warming. What will our pollies make of […]
Originally published in the Conversation. By Michael Toole. The federal government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook announcement this week to cut the foreign aid budget by a further A$3.7 billion over three years is unprecedented. The current government has slashed the aid budget by a total of A$11.3 billion over the coming four-year period. The […]
Rik Sutherland Overseas aid plays a significant role in international relations, both by way of international mechanisms (including the United Nations) and by direct country-to-country assistance. While capacity to provide aid varies, there is widespread agreement that developed countries should work towards contributing 0.7% of their Gross National Product (GNP) to aid programs, with the […]
Bill Frilay Read this article in full. The Coalition Government has made, or is making, major changes to our foreign aid policy. The changes occurring or proposed include: □ Reduction in the Aid budget □ Incorporation of the aid function with the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) □ Seeking to increase efficiencies – […]
By Bruce Duncan, C.Ss.R.* Pope Francis is arousing growing opposition from US conservatives for his criticism of failures in capitalist economics. “Pure Marxism” is the verdict of US conservative radio commentator, Rush Limbaugh, on the recent document of Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel. Yet the Pope insists this “was not communism! This is […]
Download a pdf of this newsletter Little progress in 30 years on eradicating poverty in Australia Feedback from the Anti-Poverty Week conference, Australia’s Human Rights Future, was very enthusiastic, but also deeply concerned about the worsening plight of big sections of our community struggling to escape poverty. Some 50 people took part in the conference […]
Bill Frilay As part of its election platform, Labor in 2007 announced that overseas aid (or Official Development Assistance) would be raised from about 0.28% of GDP to 0.5% of GDP by 2015-16. This commitment compares to the UN target level of 0.7%, which the EU has agreed to achieve by 2015. This was a […]
Bill Frilay Caritas Australia, the Catholic international aid organisation, has asked its supporters to email Senator Bob Carr, our new Foreign Minister, both to congratulate him on his appointment and to thank him for the Government’s commitment to increase Australia’s Official Development Assistance budget to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015-16, “as […]
