Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr. Can the minister advise the Senate on changes to the aid budget?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, Senator Rhiannon called for Australia's aid budget to be maintained so we can end world poverty. I am pleased to report that the government is going well beyond maintaining the aid budget. Tonight's budget will deliver the largest aid budget in dollar terms that this country has ever seen, increasing it year on year by 9.6 per cent, or $500 million. That is a record aid budget, Australia's largest aid budget in 25 years as a percentage of gross national income, one that will reach 0.37 per cent of GNI, up from 0.35 per cent in the previous year—yes, a budget that increases by 9.6 per cent year on year.

Yesterday Senator Rhiannon claimed that Australia is not keeping pace with other OECD donors, but the average among OECD member countries fell by four per cent last year. Australia is increasing its aid by 9.6 per cent. Simple truth: under this government the aid program has grown, grown in every year it has been in office, grown in an economically sustainable way. In fact, the figures speak for themselves. Here is a graph that demonstrates aid under the coalition and under Labor. Compared to the Liberal record, their overseas aid budget never reached 0.3 per cent of gross national income and was usually under 0.25 per cent. Overseas aid has risen in every year of this government, in total over $2 billion since 2007-08, an increase of over 60 per cent. That is a record that not only members of this government but all Australians can be greatly proud of. (Time expired)

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I would like to thank the minister for that explanation and ask: could you also explain the use of Australian aid to support asylum seekers in Australia?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Supporting refugees and potential refugees is a regular part of Australia’s aid effort, whether they are in Australia or elsewhere in the world. In 2013-14 we will report up to $375 million, consistent with OECD reporting code 1820, the costs of basic sustenance for refugees waiting to have their claims heard in Australia, to support people who have come from some of the most dangerous parts of the world—Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran—consistent with the practice of other OECD countries, the ones Senator Rhiannon claims we fail to keep pace with. For example, in 2011 the US reported $836 million for such costs, France $545 million, Sweden $489 million, the Netherlands $481 million and Norway $263 million. (Time expired)

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My second supplementary to the minister: can the minister please advise the Senate what this government will achieve with its record aid budget?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We should not lose sight that aid is not about nominal targets; it is about outcomes. Australia’s record aid budget will continue to deliver results to help our neighbours achieve the Millennium Development Goals. For example, in Papua New Guinea we will increase the number of births supervised by a trained nurse, midwife or doctor from 40 per cent in 2010 to 44 per cent by 2015, an additional 8,000 supervised deliveries per year. Australia’s aid will enable more children to attend school in Afghanistan. Enrolments are increasing from fewer than one million in 2001, and will reach 10 million in 2013-14, including three million girls. In Fiji, Australia’s assistance in 2013-14 will strengthen infant immunisation and maintain coverage rates above 90 per cent. In Laos we will work in partnership with non-government organisations to help clear unexploded ordnance from at least an additional 500 hectares of land. (Time expired)

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Wong. I refer to the Treasurer’s budget speech last year—page 1, line 1:

The four … surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful endorsement of the … success of our policies.

That is what Mr Swan said. He went on to say:

The deficit years of the global recession are behind us. The surplus years are here.

Does the minister stand by those statements made by the Treasurer last year?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very happy to have a discussion about what is happening in the economy and to respond to Senator Brandis, because I think the thing that he will always fail to understand is this, that responsible governments have to deal with the economic circumstances that they are presented with. He might like to get up and make a joke out of these issues. He might like to get up and pretend the global financial crisis—

Senator Brandis interjecting—

Mate, there is a reason you are the shadow Attorney-General: they know you don't know anything about economics. That is why you have got the job you have got. It is probably why you got the question you just got. But what I would say is this: responsible governments have to deal with the economic—

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Wait a minute, Senator Wong. Order on both sides! Senator Wong.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was saying, responsible governments have to deal with the economic circumstances as they find them, including when they change, and we have been up-front for some time that, despite the fact this will cause the government some political pain—we understand that—we will not be diverted in the Labor task of putting jobs and growth first, because Labor has always done that and we will not be diverted.

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Brandis, when there is silence on both sides I will give you the call.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. On the point of direct relevance, I have been very patient with the minister; I have even let go some very hurtful personal remarks. But the question was directed to one proposition: does the government stand by a statement made by the Treasurer last year? I ask you to draw the minister's attention to the question.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on the point of order: Minister Wong is being directly relevant to the question. She has already highlighted that circumstances have changed—directly relevant to the question. Further than that, interjections from the other side referred to the global financial crisis, and Senator Wong is giving Senator Brandis a lesson on what has happened to the economy since then.

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister has 46 seconds remaining. I do draw the minister's attention to the question.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If Senator Brandis had listened to the Treasurer's press conference last year, he would know that we made clear that the hit on revenues—

Senator Brandis interjecting—

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister has the call.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer has been up-front about the fact that there has been a very massive hit to revenues and that the government was of the view that it would not be economically responsible to chase revenues down. We will lay out in the budget tonight the choices we have made—the responsible decisions we have made—to protect jobs and ensure continued growth but also to make the right investments for Australia's future. The challenge for the opposition is whether they will ever tell Australians what their plans are. (Time expired)

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I will read further from the Treasurer's very interesting budget speech delivered this time last year:

The surplus years are here …

A surplus provides our best defence against dramatic changes in the global economy.

Does the government stand by that statement?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I invite Senator Brandis, after the budget is delivered, to be part of the leadership team on that side and tell Australians what their plan would be. We will lay out in the budget the choices we have made to protect jobs, to protect growth and to invest in great and important reforms for the country, like disability care and our schools reforms. We will lay those choices out. Some of them, I know, will be criticised by those opposite. But the difference between the government and the opposition is that we will tell Australians what those choices are. I can guarantee—and I hope you prove me wrong—that those opposite will try to hide their real plans from Australians all the way to the election, because they do not want to tell people what they would cut and how much they would cut to the bone.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a second supplementary question. If the government refuses, as it has done this afternoon, to stand by the Treasurer's budget speech of just one year ago, why should the Australian people believe anything the Treasurer says tonight?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the answer is that, if you look at the economic facts as opposed to the hysteria from Senator Brandis and others, you will see an unemployment rate which is relatively low by comparison with the rest of the world; you will see 960,000 jobs created since we came to government; you will see an economy 13 per cent larger than it was when we came to government; and you will see, as former Prime Minister John Howard said, that 'the Australian economy is doing better than most'. That is what you will see.

I would say to anyone who wants to listen to Senate question time and Senator Brandis: never believe the opposition when it comes to their ongoing criticism of the Australian economy. It is in their political interest to talk the economy down. It is always in their political interest to talk the economy down. (Time expired)