The federal government has almost doubled aid spending on Africa since coming to office, opening Ausaid of- fices and triggering accusations of
blatant vote-buying to support its bid for a United Nations Security Coun-cil seat. Ausaid is establishing an office in Accra, Ghana, and has bolstered Ausaid staff numbers in Kenya, Zim- babwe and South Africa. An em- bassy is being considered in Ethio-pia.
Australian aid to Africa has risen from $86 million in 2006-07 and is set to rise to $163 million in 2009-10.
The rapid expansion of the African aid program follows an Australian National Audit Office report that said Ausaid's resources were already stretched in managing the $3.8 bil- lion annual aid budget, most of which is distributed by private contractors through recipient governments and aid agencies.
The report found Ausaid had high staff turnover, heavy workloads and a lack of in-country expertise. Australia is bidding for a tempo- rary seat on the UNs prestigious
body dealing with global security challenges from 2013-14 but it faces stiff competition from Finland and tiny Luxembourg.
As EU members, these nations can use Europe's huge African aid effort, while Finland is also better repre- sented in Africa than Australia is.
Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee deputy chair- man and Liberal senator Russell » « Trood » said last week: "I am suffi- ciently cynical to think that almost all we do in Africa is directed at se- curing a security council seat.
"There are something like 53 votes up for grabs in Africa." He was speaking after grilling De- partment of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials about how a $500,000 program to provide Botswana with firefighting equipment and expertise could be considered aid Foreign Af- fairs department secretary Dennis Richardson defended the spending, saying: "Fires are a major problem in
Botswana." "Tourism is a big part of the econ- omy of Botswana ... our assistance to them in mitigating the risks of fires, which can go into their animal wildlife reserves, helps their overall
There is something like 53 votes up for grabs. Senator Russell Trood
seat bid'economy enormously. "It is $500,000, but the impact isconsiderably more than that." Lowy Institute aid specialist Jen-nifer Hayward-Jones said the federalgovernment needed to decide whether to spread its program to all parts of the globe or stick to the areas where Australia had expertise. "The danger is Australia willspread its effort too thinly," Ms Hay-ward Jones said. "It's hard to see how Australiaadopting a piecemeal approach to of-fering aid in Africa is going to assist the security council seat bid."Australia is a pretty small player ... the Europeans, particularly the UK, and the US are better known, have more missions and deliver farmore aid in Africa," she said. Parliamentary secretary for Inter- national Development Bob McMul- lan denied a link between the in- crease in aid to Africa and thesecurity council bid. "Kevin Rudd and I talked aboutincreasing aid in Africa as far back as 2005, when we were still in opposi- tion." Mr McMullan said. Ref: 65129076
John Kerin
Australian Financial Review Tuesday 23/2/2010 Page: 12 Section: General News Region