Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

They made themselves the third largest donor of foreign aid under the Australian aid budget—the Labor government themselves.

What concerns me is that the shadow minister for foreign affairs is still in absolute denial. She is putting out a press release assuming that Labor is going to put $16 billion of additional funding into the aid budget. I would like the Leader of the Opposition to tell us tonight: where is that $16 billion coming from for the aid budget? What programs are you cutting, or is it just more borrowings?

I am not prone to quoting Labor's last foreign minister—you are not likely to hear me say it often—but I think the shadow foreign minister should well heed the words of Bob Carr when he said, 'The truth is you can't run aid on borrowings.' Only this government will deliver an affordable, sustainable, responsible aid program.

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