It is intended to help ensure the aid program reflects the values of the wider Australian community and is an important means of opening the aid program up to new ideas and approaches to development. The AAC meets three times a year. The Minister chairs the AAC, and Parliamentary Secretary is the deputy chair. The AAC comprises eleven distinguished Australians drawn from academia, business, religious organisations and non-government agencies. Members have been appointed for a three-year term by the Minister, on an individual basis and not as representatives of specific organisations or interests.
Membership is on an honorary basis.
Aid Advisory Council Members Mr James Carlton, Secretary General of the Australian Red Cross. Archbishop Ian George AM, Archbishop of Adelaide. Ms Jill Lester, Head of Group Corporate Relations, Commonwealth Bank. Dr Ian Lin, Managing Director of Quo Vadis Consulting Group and former President of the Council of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific. Professor Richard Robison, Professor of Asian and International Politics, and Director of the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University.