Senate inquiry to look at aid to PNG

The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee has announced today that it will hold an inquiry into bilateral aid to Papua New Guinea, with a public call for submissions.

The request for the inquiry was moved on Thursday by Labor Senators Alex Gallacher and Anne McEwen.

The terms of reference focus on examining the delivery and effectiveness of Australia‘s bilateral aid program in PNG, with particular reference to:

  • the political, economic and social objectives of Australia‘s aid;
  • the role of multilateral and regional organisations, non-government organisations, Australian civil society and other donors;
  • scope for increasing private sector involvement in sustainable economic growth and reducing poverty;
  • scope for expanding private sector partnerships in leveraging private sector investment and domestic finance;
  • improving PNG‘s progress towards internationally-recognised development goals;
  • supporting inclusive development by investing in good governance, health and education, law and justice and women‘s empowerment;
  • establishing realistic performance benchmarks to assess aid outcomes against set targets and to improve accountability; and
  • the extent to which development outcomes in PNG can be improved by learning from successful aid programs in other countries.

While focusing in on PNG, some of the terms of reference share common ground with the inquiry earlier this year by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade on the role of the private sector in development. Issues such as gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea were also raised in the inquiry into the human rights of women and girls in the Indo-Pacific. Both of these inquiries are still in the public hearings phase and are yet to report.

Submissions to the PNG aid inquiry close on 27 March 2015. More details are available on the committee website.

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Ashlee Betteridge

Ashlee Betteridge was the Manager of the Development Policy Centre until April 2021. She was previously a Research Officer at the centre from 2013-2017. A former journalist, she holds a Master of Public Policy (Development Policy) from ANU and has development experience in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. She now has her own consultancy, Better Things Consulting, and works across several large projects with managing contractors.

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