Islands Business - NZ’s foreign minister rejects his govt’s aid policy is paternalistic

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI) ----- New Zealand’s opposition foreign affairs spokesman Phil Twyford says the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister is on an ideological crusade as he slashes aid to Pacific NGOs. Murray McCully has said getting value for money is now the focus of New Zealand aid which will continue to increase to a target of $600 million a year. But Mr Twyford said there’s a clear pattern emerging of aid cuts to programmes the Minister doesn’t like the look of and as a result morale at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is at a very low ebb. “The series of cuts are not being done on the basis of any evaluation, any impact assessment, any kind of policy analysis. More often than not what’s happening is that embarrassed officials from the New Zealand government aid programme relay verbally to the NGOs a decision the minister has taken to discontinue their funding.” Mr Twyford said Mr McCully’s old fashioned views on economic development risk benefitting the business elite rather than poor people. Meanwhile, New Zealand foreign minister, Murray McCully has rejected allegations that his government said policy is paternalistic. The New Zealand opposition Labour Party as well as the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific International, one of the Pacific’s largest aid organisations, issue with cuts to some programmes in the region. The Chairman of the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific International said Mr McCully has set New Zealand’s credibility as an effective aid partner back decades. But Mr McCully denies the accusations. “There is nothing paternalistic about our approach, what we are trying to do is identify areas of real need in the region and do something practical about them. That means we’ve got a very strong preference for taking some action directly rather than simply funding regional bureaucracies or people who want to engage in piecemeal solutions.”