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Political Partisanship and Australia’s Volatile Aid to Africa

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Abstract

This chapter examines in detail why Australia’s contemporary engagement with Africa is so politically partisan. Pijović examines the differing foreign policy outlooks—the ideas about Australia’s place in the world—of Australia’s two main political forces, the conservative Liberal-National Party coalition, and the centre-left Labor Party. He argues that these foreign policy outlooks—the conservatives’ ‘bilateralist regionalism’ vs. Labor’s ‘middle power’ approach—have resulted in a politically partisan, fickle, and volatile engagement with Africa. While Labor governments exhibit at least some interest in engaging with Africa, conservative governments largely do not. The second part of the chapter details how these politically partisan approaches have resulted in a great deal of volatility in Australia’s development assistance to Africa since the 1990s.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    One high-profile example of differences on specific policy positions in the time period under review is the difference between Labor’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Bob Carr over a November 2012 vote to accord Palestine ‘observer status’ at the United Nations. As Gillard makes clear in her autobiography, she was in favour of a ‘no’ vote, while Carr strongly disagreed, favouring an abstention. In an unusual move, the disagreement was brought before the full Cabinet of government—all the ministers—which agreed with Carr and Australia abstained from voting. However, this was an exception which proved the rule that prime ministers have the final say in foreign policy decisions. As Gillard made clear, ‘on significant and sensitive issues’, foreign policy decisions are made by the prime minister. See Gillard (2014, 209), Carr, Bob (2014b, 231–241), and Coorey (2012).

  2. 2.

    Interview with Gareth Evans , Canberra, 17 September 2015.

  3. 3.

    Some have suggested that the first description of Australia as a ‘middle power ’ was by the conservative External Affairs Minister Garfield Barwick in 1964 (Wesley 2009, 335). However, a search of Australian Parliament Hansard archives places the first reference to ‘middle power ’ in 1950, and made by Labor’s Member of Parliament Kim Beazley in criticizing the Menzies government for rejecting to label Australia as a ‘middle power ’ when in opposition. Hence, the description of Australia as a ‘middle power ’ was well known by at least 1950; see Beazley (1950). Herbert Evatt (1947) made implicit references to Australia’s ‘middle power ’ status in parliamentary speeches in 1947.

  4. 4.

    This bipartisanship was only really tested with regard to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003; see McDonald (2013).

  5. 5.

    Interview with senior DFAT official, Canberra 30 May 2014.

  6. 6.

    Phone interview with senior DFAT official, 13 October 2014.

  7. 7.

    AACES was built on a similar scheme—the Australian Partnership with African Communities—in place from 2004.

  8. 8.

    These are nominal figures or current prices and as such are not the best tool for comparison as they are not adjusted for inflation. However, they are the best figures currently available. The 75% figure represents the total value of cuts comparing the 2012–2013 and 2017–2018 budgets; Table 5.3 indicates year-on-year successive cuts to Australian ODA to Africa.

  9. 9.

    Interview with senior DFAT official, Canberra, 10 March 2015.

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  1. Africa Research and Engagement Centre, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Nikola Pijović

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Pijović, N. (2019). Political Partisanship and Australia’s Volatile Aid to Africa. In: Australia and Africa. Africa's Global Engagement: Perspectives from Emerging Countries. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3423-8_5

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