12. Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Did he discuss with the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, New Zealand’s aid programmes in the Pacific?
Hon BILL ENGLISHDid the Prime Minister then explain to Kevin Rudd how changing NZAID’s goal of poverty elimination and its structure as a separate organisation, as Mr McCully advocates, would help improve coherence between Australia and New Zealand’s development programmes in the Pacific, when AusAID is set up with the goal of the elimination of poverty and a separate structure? How would it help coherence to change New Zealand’s model away from Australia’s model?
The Prime Minister did not discuss the details of internal Government discussions, and I am sure Mr Rudd would accept that it is up to us to decide that.
Does he share the view of Mr McCully that NZAID is akin to throwing $100 notes out of a helicopter door and calling it poverty elimination; if so, how does that square with consistent reports from the OECD’s respected Development Assistance Committee, which rates New Zealand’s development assistance strategy and programmes as amongst the best-focused and best-delivered in the world?
Mr McCully did not actually say what the member alleges. However successful NZAID is regarded to be, there is always the opportunity to improve.
I seek leave to table a statement in quote marks in the New Zealand Herald in which Murray McCully says that NZAID is akin to throwing $100 notes out of a helicopter—
Mr SPEAKER
Phil TwyfordIs it to be his Government’s practice that it acts before seeing the facts, as in the case of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who has ordered two reviews of NZAID’s mandate and structure, while telling the New Zealand Herald that he has already made up his mind to change its focus from poverty elimination to economic development?
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is highly motivated to ensure that New Zealand’s aid is effective, and he is pursuing a course that ensures all the issues will be debated.
Does the Prime Minister agree with the editorial in this morning’s New Zealand Herald that “Government tampering” serves only to debase overseas aid; if so, will he intervene to ensure that his Minister does not meddle in the aid programme for political ends?
Several hundred million dollars of taxpayers’ money is spent through the aid budget, and any Minister of an incoming Government has the right to scrutinise it, particularly given that most of the other programmes we have been scrutinising have been found to be either in a shambolic state or badly administered.