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1 September 2005

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND FAIL IN AID COMMITMENT 

Australia and New Zealand remain the only wealthy OECD countries not to have made a commitment to significantly increase aid to meet the Millennium Development Goals to halve poverty by 2015 according to Mr Jack de Groot the Australian chairman of Make Poverty History.

Mr de Groot, who heads the coalition of more than 70 aid and community organisations, said Australia played a significant role in the South East Asia region in almost every area except in funding the fight against poverty where it now lags badly behind other nations.

"Australia now stands as the 'odd man out' in failing to deliver a blueprint for substantially increasing overseas aid to 0.5% by 2010, in line with reaching the UN target of 0.7% by 2015," Mr de Groot said.

"It is bitterly disappointing that after showing great leadership in responding to the victims of the tsunami, the Australian government has failed to follow the lead of other developed countries and commit extra funding in line with the Millennium Development Goals."

Mr de Groot said next month world leaders would meet in New York to assess the progress of the fight against poverty providing an opportunity for the government to act. Australia is in danger of becoming an international embarrassment on aid and remains the only major developed country not to significantly commit aid to meet the United Nation’s blueprint for halving world poverty.

The Australian government is lagging 16 out of 22 OECD donor countries in terms of its level of overseas aid. And our ranking is expected to plunge further to 19 out of 22 when new pledges from other nations are considered.

For a detailed analysis of Australia’s record on aid visit the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) website .

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