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

The coalition is delivering a responsible, affordable, sustainable aid budget. We have stabilised the budget at $5 billion so no longer do we have a situation where increases are announced and then the budget is raided, as Labor did. In the last 15 months of the Labor government it announced $5.7 billion in increases and then took them away from the aid budget.

What we are doing is focusing on our region. We are not going to spread the aid budget so thinly that we are not delivering effective outcomes. We are reprioritising our aid budget. For example, we are increasing humanitarian programs by 28 per cent and we are increasing the emergency fund by 33 per cent. This is the fund that enables us to respond quickly to disasters like Typhoon Haiyan. This is the emergency fund that Labor raided to fill the hole in the border protection budget, making itself the third largest recipient of Australian aid. We are also increasing scholarships by 30 per cent.

Contrast this responsible approach with that of Labor—irresponsible, unaffordable and unsustainable. Not content with its legacy of debt, running up to $667 billion, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition says she is going to add $16 billion to the aid budget. Just where does she think she is going to get $16 billion from when they are already forcing us to borrow $1 billion a month? What fantasy world does she live in?

Honourable members interjecting—

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