Latest Foreign aid

Much-needed policies on achieving greater equality must not be put at risk as the Coalition grapples with its slim hold on power and narrow mandate, international aid agency Oxfam Australia said today.

Responding to the Coalition’s announcement on its foreign policy agenda, Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Dr Helen Szoke said: “We are disappointed that the Coalition’s foreign policy announcement fails to address calls to increase funding for overseas development assistance at a time when recent cuts have taken Australia to the least generous we have ever been. […]

Responding to today’s announcement by Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek that Labor will reverse $224 million of cuts to the aid budget, Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Dr Helen Szoke said: “Oxfam is an organisation that advocates on behalf of some of the poorest people in the world. People in a daily struggle for […]

New measures to combat multinational profit-shifting announced in the Federal Budget fall short of the bold action needed to tackle the global scale of the problem, Oxfam said tonight. Oxfam Australia’s Budget spokesperson Joy Kyriacou said from Canberra that while steps to tackle profit-shifting were a good start, the Australian Government’s failure to properly fix […]

TAX: Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Dr Helen Szoke said: “Given the PM’s focus on innovation, the government’s approach to economic management is unexpectedly old-school. “Here’s an idea that’s ‘outside the box’ – multinational corporate taxation, and tackling tax dodging. “Despite the Treasurer saying the government is cracking down on multinational tax dodging, the current multinational […]

The Australian Government has missed a golden opportunity for innovation and investment by failing to reverse its aid budget cuts, Oxfam said following today’s release of the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook. Despite the Prime Minister recently making innovation a key part of his government’s agenda in order to find new ways to power up […]

The Federal Opposition’s announcement that it will start to reverse damaging cuts to Australia’s aid program if elected is a welcome first step, but the scale of recent cuts means greater action would be required, Oxfam said.

Oxfam has welcomed Australia’s adoption of a new set of United Nations global goals that seek to end extreme poverty in the next 15 years. But the international organisation warned the goals would not be reached without real political will from all countries, and a disruption of business as usual.

The announcement of a dedicated Minister for International Development and the Pacific is a welcome move that must be backed up with increased investment in the portfolio, Oxfam Australia has said.

The fight against poverty will never be won unless countries like Australia rediscover the bold political leadership that forged and delivered the Millennium Development Goals, Oxfam said in response to the release of the UN’s final MDG progress report today.