Local bowls club hosts very own foreign aid forum

(Senator Penny Wong (left) and Terri Bulter MP (right) at the Holland Park Bowls Club, Brisbane. Pictures/ Daneka Hill.)

While the Minister for Foreign Affairs braves the AUSMIN forum in California, Penny Wong, the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, took a few hours to hold her own forum at a local bowls club.

Attendees of the Wednesday morning event were largely arm-chair experts, clergy, members of the United Nations Associate of Australia, and retirees.

"It's actually fundamentally a question about how you see Australia's place in the world," Senator Wong said while being watched by a framed portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth the II.

"We are in a period where the post-World War II order - established and fundamentally underwritten by the United States - is being challenged. Is being 'disrupted' is the phrase I'd use... some of them are to do with the change in whose economy is bigger, some of them to do with how President Trump is approaching the world."

Senator Wong categorized foreign aid and regional development as a 'pragmatic national interest'.

"There are many issues, particularly in today's world... that cannot be resolved by one country alone. Unless you are able to engage constructively with other nations to address those collective challenges, you actually have no solution to them."

The Global Financial Crisis, climate change, and nuclear conflict, are all examples of major issues where Australia has to rely on its ties to other nations.

Senator Wong, whose was the Minister for Climate Change and Water in 2007, Minister for Finance and Deregulation in 2010, and Leader of the Senate in 2013, took interest in the fact that the Australian public over-estimated the amount spent on foreign aid.

"Just so we're clear, 0.86% of the federal budget is spent on aid. So less than one percent. I think most people thought we spent five or ten percent, and that was probably a bit too much. Well, no government has ever spent that much on foreign development."

In that same 2017 poll by the Lowy Institute, it was found 79% of Australians were dissatisfied with the direction of the world. Despite a surge in nationalism and protectionism across the West, 78% of Australians considered globalisation 'mostly good' for their country. When asked who is Australia's 'best friend in the world' the U.S. no longer came first. New Zealand now ranks at the top by a wide margin.

An important issue brought up by a member of the public, was the usefulness of foreign aid, especially in cases where aid was not asked for.

"I've seen money put into things where, when I go and visit, the local feed back is 'actually we really need (something else) like that - this is what we need'. It's a question of how do you construct you're development programs to reflect local needs. Not just what people want, but what people want that will deliver the right outcomes."

A more intriguing use of your time is the Hon Penny Wong's own analysis delivered last week, titled: 'THE US IN ASIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE'.