From the AFR:
Foreign Minister Bob Carr has confirmed Australia will delay for another year a commitment to lift foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of gross domestic income.
As the Australian Financial Review reported on Monday, the measure could save as much as $3 billion.
The cuts will see Australia’s foreign embassy in Budapest closed, but Senator Carr said Australia’s spending on aid overall would still increase by 9.6 per cent, or $500 million, in 2013-14.
The government will also cap the amount that can be spent on onshore asylum seeker costs.
Under the United Nation’s millennium development goals, Australia committed to spending at least 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2015-16 but that has been pushed back twice.
