Australian tax payers rorted by Labor, Coalition and Greens, siphoning of millions for themselves, and deny those the money is intended for, creating more refugees and human suffering. Australia First do believe in foreign aid, but not this sort of model. Money should not be used in this way by the Major parties, nor should it be forwarded to corrupt governments and corrupt agencies, this aid should reach the people it is intended for directly and not always in the form of money, but other resources to rebuild and empower people at the coalface, then perhaps we wouldn't be seeing the amount of displaced peoples we currently see.
Poor miss out as pollies live large - EXCLUSIVE -
Author: EAN HIGGINS
Publication: The Australian (6,Fri 26 Apr 2013)
Edition: 1 - All-round Country
Section: Local
Keywords: Freedom (1),of (1),Information (1)
An analysis by The Australian has found the federal government has cut aid programs on issues close to its heart including education, health, women's development and climate change, as well as food security in some of the most desperate countries in the Third World.
But Foreign Minister Bob Carr remains supportive of an AusAID program that the ALP, the Liberals and more recently the Greens have used to fly business class to attend meetings with like-minded political parties overseas.
The travel costs are fully covered under the AusAID Australian Political Parties for Democracy Program, established by John Howard in 2005 and expanded by Labor to include the Greens.
It now provides $1m a year each to the Liberals and the ALP and $200,000 to the Greens, with only half the funds required to be spent on actual development aid.
AusAID documents recently released under Freedom of Information laws show party figures received thousands of taxpayer dollars a day to travel overseas to attend conferences with their ideological brethren.
Former Liberal Party president Shane Stone, former prime minister John Howard, party federal director Brian Loughnane and party international secretary Bruce Edwards travelled on APPDP money to London in 2011 to attend the conservative International Democrat Union party leaders meeting, at a cost to the taxpayer of $70,279.77
A trip to Colombia that year for three Young Liberals to attend a two-day conference of the International Young Democrat Union Freedom Forum cost $52,451.70
Labor figures, including former national secretaries Karl Bitar and Tim Gartrell, NSW state MP Luke Foley, NSW state secretary Sam Dastyari, and former senator Michael Forshaw have also enjoyed the largesse of APPDP.
Trips in 2010 to Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, Canada, Italy and the US for 24 Labor party figures, along with some incoming visits from those countries, under the title ``fraternal party relationships'' had a price tag of $196,050.15.
When The Australian asked Senator Carr whether he thought APPDP provided good outcomes for Third World countries, a spokeswoman said the program ``has been successful in promoting democracy in the Asia-Pacific''.
``In 2011, training on matters including campaigning, democratic practices and integrity and policy development and implementation were provided by Australian political parties to parties in East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Cambodia,'' the spokeswoman said.
Senator Carr announced in December he would ``re-prioritise'' $375m of aid this financial year and divert it to accommodating asylum-seekers.
In Africa, the cuts include deferrals of $10m for food security in Somalia and $5m in similar funding to South Sudan.
In 2011, then foreign minister Kevin Rudd visited Somalia to promise more food aid for the Horn of Africa. ``There are more than half a million Somalis in the refugee camps, and 50,000 arrived last month alone, with nearly half of the children under five starving,'' he said at the time.
WHAT IS BEING CUT
SOMALIA and SOUTH SUDAN Funding for food security programs - $10m and $5m respectively
ZIMBABWE Payments for a small-towns water, sanitation and hygiene program - $4m
NEPAL New water, sanitation and hygiene activities and a livelihoods program - $3.3m
PAKISTAN New health and water resource management activities - $7.9m
SRI LANKA Programs including nutrition,
water and sanitation, and economic governance - $3.3m
SAMOA Payments to a World Bank trust fund for a multi-donor health sector program, planned new activities to the law-and-justice program and engagement of long-term advisers in the governance sector - $3.1m
FIJI Scholarship programs, along with infrastructure projects in health and education - $3.1m
WHAT WENT AHEAD AND WHAT IT COST
LABOR
* Trips to the US for former national secretary Karl Bitar to Progessive Governance; Prime Minister's Office director of cabinet Mathew Jose to a Socialist International council meeting and the Centre for American Progress; and assistant national secretary Nick Martin to the Centre for American Progress - $44,086.83
* Trip to Liverpool for four ALP figures to attend British Labour Party conference - $56,745.86
* Trips to Britain, New Zealand and Germany for seven ALP figures including former senator Michael Forshaw, and incoming visits from these countries as well as Ireland, Norway and Canada, under the title 'fraternal party relationships' - $150,360.42
* Trips to Athens, Geneva, London, Mongolia, and Madrid for four ALP figures, and some incoming visits, under the title 'fraternal multi-lateral relationships' - $49,018.90
LIBERALS
* Trip to Washington DC for former party president Shane Stone to attend a three-day executive meeting of the International Democrat Union - $20,382.25
* Trip to New Zealand for Stone and federal director Brian Loughnane to attend the three-day NZ National Party conference - $8662.33
* Trip to South Korea for three Young Liberals to attend a six-day International Young Democrat Union study tour - $34,248.76
* Trip to US for campaign unit manager Jonathan Hawkes to visit US Republican Party - $23,340.30
GREENS
* Trip for trainer consultant Amanda Sully and party member Margie Law to Bangkok and funds for training 18 participants from parties including the Mongolian Green Party, the Philippine Greens, and the Green Civil Society of Nepal - $34,940.30
http://aap.newscentre.com.au/cpsunat/130426/library/union_related_issues/30948096.html
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