Devpolicy Blog: New opinion data on aid spending, and 2017-18 Federal Budget preview
Camilla Burkot, research officer at the Development Policy Centre, discusses the results of a new opinion poll on Australian politics and national opinion trends, writing, “50 percent of respondents to the poll indicated they would like to see ‘assistance to the needy in the rest of the world’ decreased. Just 11 percent of respondents wanted to increase foreign aid spending, and 30 percent think that spending should be maintained at the current level. … Though a 50 percent approval rating for cutting aid might seem dismal, it’s worth noting that these latest results can actually be interpreted as a rise in approval for aid spending over the last three years. In May 2014, a similar poll examining approval for decisions made in the now-notorious 2014-15 Federal Budget found that 64 percent of respondents approved of freezing foreign aid…” (5/2).