Cosmopolitanism, National Interest, Selfishness and Australian Aid

Australia is a rich country, which, if it is to be seen as meeting the cosmopolitan criteria for a good international citizen, has a responsibility to assist the poorer countries of the world. Each new federal government looks to the aid program to imprint its own ideology and judges whether aid funding is in the light of overall national needs. The Abbott Government is party to this revisionism. AusAID has been abolished, incorporated within the Department of Foreign Affairs; the aid budget has been slashed with new geographical and sectoral foci introduced alongside a heavy stress on the national interest. Aid for trade and economic policy conditionality are back in fashion. Yet much of the Abbott Government's allegedly new framework represents a return to the concerns of earlier Coalition governments. Regrettably, this change to a less cosmopolitan and more selfish Australia has attracted very little public concern or debate.