Abstract
Since 2013, Australian aid has been reduced and increasingly focused on delivering benefits to Australia. Motivated by these changes, this paper fills three gaps in the existing literature on public opinion about aid. It provides the only recent detailed study of Australians' opinions about aid. It studies specific policy questions in addition to the broader questions typical of international research. And it studies views on the purpose of aid, an area not previously researched. Although Australians are generally supportive of aid, most backed major aid cuts in 2015. However, most Australians think the purpose of Australian aid should be helping people in poor countries, not bringing benefits to Australia. There is a clear left–right divide in responses to all questions; however, some variables correlated with support for aid fail to explain variation in views about aid's purpose. The paper concludes by discussing ramifications for those who seek to change aid policy.
Highlights
The election of the centre-right Coalition government in 2013 brought major changes to Australian aid
Public opinion is not the only factor that shapes high-level aid policy decisions, there is international evidence that suggests that the views of the public play a contributing role in the choices politicians make about aid policy (Chong & Gradstein 2008; Heinrich et al 2016; Milner & Tingley 2010; Milner & Tingley 2011; Prather 2011; Stern 1998)
Most Australians approve of their government giving aid; responses to a more detailed policy-related question show that, when confronted with trade-offs, despite their broad approval of aid, in 2015, the majority of Australians were happy to see the aid budget cut
Summary
The election of the centre-right Coalition government in 2013 brought major changes to Australian aid. These studies have their own particular limitation for the Australian audience: none focus on Australia This is an issue both because support for aid varies considerably between countries, and because the relationships between different traits and views about aid vary (Clarke et al 2014; Paxton & Knack 2012). In addition to providing findings based on aggregate responses to these questions, I use regression analysis to identify the socio-demographic traits and beliefs associated with support for aid, opposition to aid cuts, and preferred purpose of aid giving. I discuss the ramifications of what I have found for those who seek to change high-level aid policy in Australia. (Replication files can be downloaded from https://goo.gl/ufGzC2.)
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