2024 Federal Budget response

Australia’s aid budget remains static in real terms. While Tearfund acknowledges the important inclusion of new funding for climate initiatives, we are disappointed not to see a change in the trajectory of Australia’s aid generosity from these historic low levels.

In response to the 2024 Budget, Matthew Maury, Tearfund’s Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“The scale and increasing complexity of global challenges are sending us backwards on ending extreme poverty yet, in real terms, Australia’s aid budget is static. Australians are not immune from these challenges - war, dangerous weather events, and economic shocks - but right now it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities who are bearing the heaviest burden. This injustice demands a response. We are one of the world’s wealthiest nations but we continue to sit near the bottom of the ladder when it comes to our aid generosity. Now is the time to lift our game, and not miss another opportunity to invest in education, empowering women and girls, building climate resilience - the things that make a real difference in the lives of people experiencing poverty.”

Tearfund’s Head of Advocacy and Influencing, Emma Wyndham Chalmers, highlighted the particular invitation for Christians in Australia in light of the Budget:

“As Christians, we understand the responsibility we have to care for people who are vulnerable and who are suffering, both here at home and in the poorest communities around the world. Right now, our world is facing complex and compounding crises, the scale of humanitarian need is heartbreaking, yet this budget sees no increase to our Humanitarian Emergency Fund for the sixth year running. There is more we can do. I want to see Christians speaking up for an Australia that responds generously and justly to the needs of our world, and does more to sow the seeds that grow a safer world, a more hopeful world, a world in which all people can flourish.”