120,000 reasons to increase aid

Yesterday the government announced a welcome increase in our foreign aid budget, laying out a pathway to increase it to 0.35% of GDP by 2010. However, it still has a long way to go if it is to meet its commitment to boost it to 0.7% by 2015. Today, it received 120,000 reasons to push towards that target, in the form of a petition from the New Zealand branch of the Make Poverty History campaign. That's a massive petition for New Zealand, and one that makes it clear that we expect our government to do better in this area. Hopefully they'll take the message to heart, rather than ignoring it.