It's not just the Greens who are in favour of New Zealand boosting its foreign aid. While Helen Clark is talking about action against global poverty at CHOGM, back home Peter Dunne is suggesting that we should put our money where our mouth is:
New Zealand's foreign aid in the last financial year was 0.27 per cent of GDP. Mr Dunne wants it increased to 0.5 per cent, moving towards the international goal of 0.7 per cent.
And he'll be seeking a cross-party agreement in order to get there. Hopefully this means we'll see some progress towards it in the next budget.
Dunne may be fairly conservative on social issues (though not as conservative as the rest of his party), but he's generally a liberal internationalist on foreign policy - and would be a far better foreign minister than Winston Peters (mainly because he is at least reliable).
(Hat tip: Frogblog)
Thats great, that means there is majority in Parliament to support increasing aid UF+Lab+Prog+Green=61
ReplyDeleteAnd of course there is the Maori party as well, and they may also vote in favour.
Great!
I'm a bit cynical on New Zealanders' views on this. Oh sure everyone says they're in favour of more aid but if they were asked to increase taxes in order to pay for it, most people won't have a bar of it. It's the hypocrisy surrounding the "War on Poverty" - everyone wants to solve it, but with "someone else's" money. Much of the time they won't put their money where their mouth is.
ReplyDeleteSTC: The first skill of parliamentary politics is learning to count. Unfortunately, there's only 60 votes there - not a mjaority.
ReplyDeleteBut what this will do is increase pressure on the government to increase funding in the Budget, which both UF and NZFirst are honour-bound to support.
Err, true... I gave UF one too many MPs.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall the Maori Party during the election calling for more Foreign Aid to the Pacific, so maybe there is a majority there after all.
Anyway, its still cool.