Complaints our foreign aid is too low just don’t add up

IT was disappointing to read criticism of Australia’s “meagre” contribution to the wellbeing of people in other countries.

Federal budget papers show Australia’s expenditure on foreign affairs and economic aid averaged $5.942 billion for each of the last three years.

Generous, yes? But wait, there’s more.

Our large immigrant population is estimated to have sent $20.384 billion in remittances to family in their former countries in 2017 alone.

That gives a running total of about $26.562 billion gifted from Australia to other countries in just one year.

But wait, there’s still more.

Australia’s participation in the UNHCR’s humanitarian resettlement program means that we take in people who lack the means to support themselves.

Therefore, Australians pay for their housing, health care, welfare, child care, education, language lessons, policing etc, with an estimated cost per person of about $103,000 per year over their first 10 years.

The past 10 years of refugees (61,026 individuals) now have a cumulative cost of $6.286 billion in 2017.

The running total is now $32.848 billion – but I know you want more!

Australia’s participation in the UNFCCC’s Paris Climate Accord means we are artificially inflating the costs of our electricity, which is forcing our businesses to close or move offshore, putting our people on the dole.

In effect, our compliance with the UN’s policies is gifting our industries to developing nations.

The cost of that compliance in 2017 is estimated at $287.652 billion.

Therefore our “donations” to foreigners in whatever form in 2017 were about $320.5 billion.

That works out to the equivalent of $13,108 per Australian. That’s generous by anyone’s standards.

But wait there’s more. Only 9.6 million Australians actually pay income tax and of those, only 1.4 million pay net tax in that they pay more than they get back in government payments and subsidies.

The bottom line – Australia’s net taxpayers effectively funded foreign aid in 2017 to the tune of $228,929 each.

Anyone who whines that Australia isn’t doing enough to help foreigners should dig deeper into their own pockets.

All this information is available online in the Government’s budget papers.

It’s a pity those who demand Australia increase its foreign aid or oppose it being scaled back don’t read more widely.