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Bono’s company launches attack on Abbott govt

An anti-poverty campaign co-founded by Bono has taken a swipe at Australia’s foreign aid cuts and the slashing of assistance to Africa.

Ahead of a major international conference on financing development in Ethiopia next week, a report by the ONE Campaign claims less than a quarter of Australian aid reaches the world’s poorest people.

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This year’s federal budget cut Australia’s aid program to Africa by 70 per cent following an across-the-board $1 billion reduction in 2015-16 to $4 billion.

The government has said it was prioritising aid for its immediate neighbourhood, the Asia-Pacific region, and that Africa was the responsibility of Europe.

“So far, the Abbott government has been historic for all the wrong reasons, overseeing cuts to the aid budget that have set Australia down the path to being the least generous it’s ever been in terms of aid,” ONE Campaign global policy director Eloise Todd said in a statement on Thursday.

Australia’s aid budget is set to plummet to 0.22 per cent of national income by 2016-17, well below 0.7 per cent – the level the United Nations is pushing countries to donate.

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