Pauline Hanson blasts ‘complete madness’ of pricey aid for African students

Foreign aid is a tricky topic on which there seems to be no right answer.

One argument, for example, is that Australia’s a relatively wealthy, developed country with a high standard of living, and its lucky population has a moral obligation to help the less fortunate people of the world. Plus, foreign aid is often used to sweeten trade deals that might benefit the donor country.

The counter argument, of course, is that Australia is in debt, not surplus, plus has relatively high tax rates and residents who do not have a good standard of living, so should use its taxpayers’ valuable funds to first help Australians. Some may say that the countries Australia aid are, in their current state, unlikely to feature highly on the list of the country’s most important trade partners.

Pauline Hanson is, probably unsurprisingly, a strong supporter of the latter argument, and has just posted a furious Facebook rant about what she says is a $320 million Australian sponsorship program designed to allow up to 10,000 people from Africa to come to Australia to study.

Hanson was set off by what appears to be a fairly innocuous Facebook post made by South Australian Senator Lucy Guchuhi, who drew attention to the Australia Awards Scholarships that allow young people from a number of African countries to undertake higher degrees and professional training courses, as part of the Australian government’s African development assistance program.

https://www.facebook.com/LucyGichuhiAustralia/posts/941736212664391

Information on the scholarships provided by Guchuhi, who is the first person of black African descent to be elected to the Australian parliament, says that the scholars are expected to use their learnings to “contribute actively to development in their home countries”. The information she posted said that there were 1,000 scholarships available.

Hanson, however, reckons the scholarships are “complete madness” that make her blood boil, and put the number of available scholarships at 10,000, at a total cost of $320 million, although it’s not clear over what period the senator was referring.

Hanson went on to say that the scholarships included full tuition fees, return air travel, a payment of $5,000 to cover the cost of accommodation, expenses and study materials, a further $30,000 to cover other expenses, as well as the fees paid on pre-study English classes and continuing post-study support.

“Over half a trillion dollars in debt and here are the Government and Labor throwing borrowed cash around the globe,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “It’s an absolute insult to every citizen in Australia and a disgrace to hard working people who slave their guts out to be taxed.”

According to a fact-checking story by The Conversation, Australia’s total aid budget for 2016-17 was $3.8 billion, down from $5.1 billion in 2012-13. It will stay near flat at $3.9 billion in 2017-18. The budget’s come under unprecedented reductions under the Coalition government, The Conversation report found.

March 2017 data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade shows that Australia’s official development assistance to Africa and the Middle East is budgeted to come to $253.6 million in 2017-18, of which 17.3 per cent was designated as education aid. The Pacific region receives the lion’s share of Australia’s aid budget, at just over $1 billion in the same year, while south-east and east Asia come in a close second at $883 million.

Do you support the current level of aid Australia provides to developing countries? Or would you prefer to see the money spent on needy Australians?