Today’s release of the annual Lowy Poll reveals a disappointing drop in support for action on climate change, but on the matter of foreign aid, the results are extraordinarily positive.
This is the second year in a row the Lowy has included a question on support for foreign aid as part of its poll. It shows no change in the percentage of those who believe helping countries in our region to reduce poverty is “very important” – staying static at 54% of Australians.
But this year, the Lowy added two additional questions on foreign aid that are incredibly illuminating.
To find out what Australians think about the government’s proposed increase in foreign aid, the Lowy asked respondents to give their “hunch” about what percentage of the Australian Federal budget they think is actually spent on foreign aid. Here is where it gets interesting.
On average, Australians believe aid accounts for 16% of the Federal budget, with almost a third (31%) guessing 20% of more of the budget goes to foreign aid.
In reality, current spending on foreign aid accounts for just 1.3% of the Federal budget and 0.35% of Gross National Income.
But wait, there’s more.
People were then asked “what percentage of the Australian Federal budget, if any, do you personally think should be spent on foreign aid”. On average, Australians said they wanted 12% of the Federal budget spent on foreign aid. That’s right - almost ten times the actual amount!
Now let’s draw all these figures together and see what picture it paints.
Although only 54% of Australians believe helping countries in our region to reduce poverty is very important, a further 35% deem it fairly important. That’s a grand total of 89% of Australian who believe foreign aid is an important aspect of our foreign policy.
So, what does that leave us with?
Nine in 10 Australians think tackling poverty is important and want to spend 12% of our Federal budget doing so.
From the lips of Australians to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s ears…
These figures actually correlate quite closely to those from the United States when WorldPublicOpinion.org askeda similar set of questions in November 2010. Although in that case, respondents overestimated even more how much was spent on aid (27%), but arrived at similar conclusions as Australians on how much should be spent (13%).
Alas, I won’t be losing any sleep waiting for a ten-fold increase in Australia's aid budget, but I'll make sure I point these figures out to Mr Rudd and his advisors next time we meet.
PS: If you want all the gory details, you can download the Lowy Poll 2011 report in full from the Lowy website.
