Aid Policy and Australian Public Opinion

Terence Wood

Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies from Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: Since 2013, Australian aid has been reduced and increasingly focused on delivering benefits to Australia. Motivated by these changes, this paper fills three gaps in the existing literature on public opinion about aid. It provides the only recent detailed study of Australians' opinions about aid. It studies specific policy questions in addition to the broader questions typical of international research. And it studies views on the purpose of aid, an area not previously researched. Although Australians are generally supportive of aid, most backed major aid cuts in 2015. However, most Australians think the purpose of Australian aid should be helping people in poor countries, not bringing benefits to Australia. There is a clear left–right divide in responses to all questions; however, some variables correlated with support for aid fail to explain variation in views about aid's purpose. The paper concludes by discussing ramifications for those who seek to change aid policy.

Keywords: aid; public opinion; Australia; aid policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2018-05-21
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, May 2018, pages 235-248

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:een:appswp:201818

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