Minister risks politicising aid programme
20.04.10 Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully appears to be imposing his own political prejudices on the Government's funding of NGO aid programmes, says Labour's associate Foreign Affairs spokesperson Phil Twyford.

The Minister has announced a review of the way the Government spends $26 million a year supporting aid programmes run by New Zealand non-government organisations.

“There was a danger that effective aid programmes funded by New Zealanders' donations would miss out on matching grants from the Government simply because they didn't meet Mr McCully's narrow political agenda”, Phil Twyford said.

"There is nothing wrong with making the funding system more efficient or accountable. But the Minister let slip on Radio NZ this morning that this latest move is about his own political agenda when he said 'rather too many of these programmes are focused on trade union rights in obscure parts of the world' ".

"Supporting the rights of workers in poor countries to get a fair deal might not be McCully's idea of reducing poverty, but his comment does raise the prospect of him vetting all the aid projects against his own version of political correctness.

"Mr McCully has a well known hostility to non government organisations in the aid area, even though most New Zealanders support these organisations with their hard earned cash.

"The Minister has already cut the Government's funding of the development NGOs' umbrella group, the Council for International Development, by 75%.

"It will be interesting to see the new criteria for NGO funding. It would be a shame if a lot of good work done by New Zealand NGOs misses out on support because it doesn't match Mr McCully's narrow prescription for economic development “, said Phil Twyford.