THE government is demanding the opposition restate its commitment to increasing the foreign aid budget after its finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, advanced an argument for paring back aid levels to pay off debt and fund Coalition election promises.
In a National Press Club address yesterday, Senator Joyce also took aim at the public service, flagging large-scale job cuts should the Coalition be elected.
Senator Joyce's job is to find budget savings for the Coalition to fund policies such as its $3.2 billion greenhouse gas reduction scheme.
He said the Government was borrowing money from overseas to finance its deficit so it made little sense to be sending money back overseas as aid.
''We've got to understand that it's not our money any more, it's somebody else's money that we're sending over and if you want to keep borrowing money and sending it over, in the end you start to create problems for yourself,'' he said.
Senator Joyce stressed: ''It's not a matter of cutting aid budgets'', but added ''we just have to start noticing that we're moving into a different financial state of incredible debt and we've really got to start drilling down on all the decisions that make up why we borrow that money.''
He cited Australia giving $150 million a year to the World Bank, of which he said $50 million was used to combat food inflation in the Third World.
''We ended up with the highest food inflation in the Western world and in the middle of this they're sending $50 million, you know, to help other nations out.''
Australia has allocated $3.8 billion for foreign aid this financial year, an amount which is set to rise. That figure amounts to 0.34 per cent of gross national income but the federal government has pledged to increase this ratio to 0.5 per cent by 2015-16.
The Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, called on the opposition to clarify its position.
''The new leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, should confirm one way or the other whether the Liberal Party is committed to this target as it was under Mr Abbott's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull,'' he said.
Mr Smith's opposition counterpart, Julie Bishop said: ''There has been no change in Coalition foreign aid policy''.
The chief executive officer of World Vision, Tim Costello, said he was worried by the tenor of Senator Joyce's comments.
''The people who are the most vulnerable and the poorest should not be a political football between the parties,'' he said.
Australian aid was especially important for relationships in the immediate region. ''It's not just right, it's in our self interest,'' he said. ''I would say to Senator Joyce that it was this region that helped keep us out of recession during the global financial crisis by buying our [commodities].''
In opposition, Kevin Rudd promised to take the ''meat axe'' to the public service but never followed through in government. Senator Joyce identified this as a key area for savings.
''You've got to cut the suit to fit the wearer,'' he said.
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