Publications
Australian Aid Policy: A Case of Lose/Lose, not Win/Win
IPA BACKGROUNDER
Australia’s aid programme is significant, particularly in the Pacific, totalling (in 2000–01 terms) around $50 billion since 1975. It also accounts for a significant and growing share of scarce national savings.
Despite this, our aid programme has been a dismal failure in the very countries—the Pacific islands such as Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea—which form the core of the programme. Indeed, the phrase ‘failed state’ has been used to describe the Solomons, and, by any measure, PNG is also on the brink of failure.