Aid Policy and Australian Public Opinion

Abstract

Since 2013, Australian aid has been reduced and increasingly focused on delivering benefits to Australia. Motivated by these changes, this paper fills three gaps in the existing literature on public opinion about aid. It provides the only recent detailed study of Australians' opinions about aid. It studies specific policy questions in addition to the broader questions typical of international research. And it studies views on the purpose of aid, an area not previously researched. Although Australians are generally supportive of aid, most backed major aid cuts in 2015. However, most Australians think the purpose of Australian aid should be helping people in poor countries, not bringing benefits to Australia. There is a clear left–right divide in responses to all questions; however, some variables correlated with support for aid fail to explain variation in views about aid's purpose. The paper concludes by discussing ramifications for those who seek to change aid policy.

Helping Us or Helping Them? What Makes Foreign Aid Popular with Donor Publics?

“…Moreover, a substantial body of work in behavioral economics, psychology and political science has provided evidence that people behave altruistically in certain circumstances (Ahlquist and Levi 2013;Gintis et al 2003). Also, some observational studies of views on aid purpose have also found majorities of respondents believe aid should be focused primarily on helping other countries (Wood 2018a).…”

What parliamentarians think about Australia's post‐COVID‐19 aid program: The emerging ‘cautious consensus’ in Australian aid

“…For example, Corbett's ( 2017 ) history of the Australian aid program consistently highlights the crucial role of executive discretion, while Wells ( 2019 ) highlights how the highly centralised budget process in Australia, operating through the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet, further propels the centralisation of decision‐making around aid volumes. None of this is to deny the role of public opinion in shaping Australian aid policy (for an overview of how, see Wood, 2018 ). Indeed, the interview data we report below shows that Australian politicians are acutely aware of how aid issues are perceived by their constituents.…”

“…Whereas the goal of poverty reduction proved to be one of partisan disagreement during the period of the Abbott government, the threat of Chinese influence is a concern shared across parliamentarians from both major parties. More broadly, this suggests that the left‐right divide that Wood ( 2018 ) describes in public opinion on Australia's foreign aid, may recede into the future in the context of the perception of threat posed by China.…”

“…While the renewed importance of Australian aid in the region was a key feature of the responses of parliamentarians and key informants, another consistent theme across the interviews was fear of domestic backlash to an increase in foreign aid. Public opinion surveys reveal that Australians are generally supportive of aid (Wood, 2018 ). That support, however, is not deep, and when faced with trade‐offs, most Australians supported significant aid cuts under the Abbott government in 2015 (Wood, 2018 ).…”

“…Public opinion surveys reveal that Australians are generally supportive of aid (Wood, 2018 ). That support, however, is not deep, and when faced with trade‐offs, most Australians supported significant aid cuts under the Abbott government in 2015 (Wood, 2018 ). Furthermore, in a context of an economic crisis, extant research would tend to suggest that public support for aid spending is likely to fall.…”