Australia has reduced its Pacific aid health spending by a third in last five years despite health crises in the region including a massive measles outbreak, polio and drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Health aid funding has been cut in the Cook Islands by 75 per cent, Fiji by 22 per cent and in the Solomon Islands by 13 per cent according to figures released in Senate estimates in response to ALP questions.
In Samoa, health aid has been cut by 36 per cent despite a measles outbreak that has claimed the lives of more than 80 people.
The chief executive of the Australian Council for International Development, Marc Purcell, told The Guardian that Australia had traditionally been a leader on preventive health, but “this leadership has been lost”.
“Given the low resilience of the region against infectious diseases, the recent spread of measles in Samoa and the threat of coronavirus, there are widely held concerns across the Pacific,” he said.
The cuts are not just being felt in health. Australia has significantly cut its overall aid program in the last five years.
In the current financial year, it will spend just 21 cents on foreign aid for every $100 the nation earns, a historic low, down from a peak of 33 cents in 2013–2014 and well below the UN target for wealthy countries of 70 cents.