This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
Canada: 
Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
The recent asylum seeker deal between the government of Australia and PNG seems to have upset several agencies. Certain Aid agencies have voiced their concern about the ambiguous status of this agreement.
Allegedly, the main concern is the lack of financial transparency of the deal sealed by Australian Premier Kevin Rudd and PNG Chief Peter O’Neill. Analysts fear that the aid might be strategically directed to finance PNG program.
According to Archie Law, the Executive-Director for ActionAid Australia, it is highly likely that the $375million fund will be spent in the establishment of detention centers.
“Manus and Nauru can be counted as aid because ultimately people would come to Australia. In PNG, asylum seekers will not be coming into Australia so it cannot be counted as aid. When 400 million dollars of Australian aid goes to PNG out of a total budget of 5.7 billion and if more is going to PNG, the question has to be asked where is that going to come from,” Mr Law said.
ActionAid Australia is in direct contact with the Australian government and there have been thorough discussions about the plans for scaling up aid budgets. However, the agency claims that the government has not provided complete clarity on the subject.
“The aid budget was meant to be scaled up to 0.5 per cent by 2015… There have been successive cuts to the aid budget over the last two years. There is a lot that hasn’t been thought through purely from a very selfish self-interested Australian perspective let alone the concerns in PNG.
“It is a case of short-term political fix to get the government through to an election…sounds like a government panicking to me. The country has so many ethnicities, is struggling with social cohesion and many people don’t have access to services already,” Mr Law added.
Be the first to comment