Good morning church!
I am killing two birds with one stone with this email! In a hour or so, I’m heading to parliament with the Micah Women Leader’s delegation to urge our parliamentary leaders to increase the Australian aid to at least 1% of the Federal Budget, so I’m practicing my speech on all of you! (I hope you don’t mind!)
Just as a bit of background information, Micah Australia is supported by a coalition of Australia’s leading Christian international development agencies. These agencies get together to shape, resource, and implement Micah’s strategies each year. The Executive Director of Micah Australia is Tim Costello, and it was lovely to catch up with Tim yesterday and I pass on his greetings to all of you!
As you might be aware (and as shown in the graph) Australia’s aid budget has been declining over the past 10 years.
Although the Government did make some temporary increases during the pandemic – which aid agencies warmly welcomed – this decade-long decline has only recently been stabilised through commitments made in this term of government. If you compare Australia to the other 31 wealthy nations of the world, we were the 14th most generous giver in 2015, but we have slid down the rankings to being the 26th most generous in 2023. (I can’t help thinking that we have been so proud of punching above our weight as small population in the Olympics, but we are content to punch well below our weight (New Zealand gives more generously in aid per capita than we do) when it comes to aid!)
But what we find most perplexing about this graph is that it doesn’t really represent how Australian people feel about giving to aid. There are some indications, that in some groups within the Australian population, attitudes to aid giving are hardening, but the overall finding of the research that Micah has conducted through the RedBridge group is that people consistently believe that Australia is giving far more generously than we actually are, and when they discover that in fact our giving is 0.68% of the Federal Budget, there is a strong desire to see this giving supported or increased.
So, we are calling on our leaders to ensure that our aid giving continues and that it increases to 1% of our Federal Budget. We believe Australian people want to be generous and want to see aid making a difference to people in need. We also know that when we invest in development, peace and prosperity in our region and beyond it is good for other nations, but it is also beneficial for Australia. The campaign slogan is – a safer world for all.
If you’re feeling fired up about this issue, you could send a letter through to one of our parliamentary leaders:
Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher senator.katy.gallagher@aph.gov.au;
Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP Andrew.Leigh.MP@aph.gov.au;
Ms Alicia Payne MP Alicia.Payne.MP@aph.gov.au;
Senator David Pocock Senator.David.Pocock@aph.gov.au
Mr David Smith MP David.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au.
And please be praying for me and the rest of the group – 30 or so different women from over 12 different dominations – today.
Grace and peace,
Belinda