Locke Keith: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Locke Keith: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:626;Page:21210] 
11. 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Official Development Assistance) 
: Does New Zealand have a timetable to meet the United Nations target of 0.7 percent of gross national income spent on foreign aid by 2015; if not why not? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Official Development Assistance)) 
: 
 New Zealand has a commitment over the next three Budgets to make a planned increase in overseas development assistance from 0.23 percent to 0.28 percent. With Budget 2005 this Government has committed to the largest series of dollar increases since New Zealand became a donor in the 1960s. 
Keith Locke 
: Can the Minister confirm that for 5 years New Zealand has been agreeing at international meetings that rich nations must set a timetable to meet the millennium development goal of 0.7 percent by 2015; if so why is there no timetable today and when will there be a timetable? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I am not aware of any specific commitments by New Zealand and I have not on the international forum committed specifically to meeting a timetable. But we have in the same way as European Union countries have done committed to an intermediary timetable. 
Tim Barnett 
: Does the Minister believe that aid can compensate for unfair trade; if so why? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: George Monbiot with whom I happen to agree wrote in the  
Guardian  
on 31 May this year that if developing countries increased their share of world exports by only 5 percent then “developing countries would earn an extra $350bn”—I think it is United States dollars—“a year three times more than they will be given in 2015. Any Government that wanted to help developing nations would surely make the terms of trade between rich and poor its priority.” New Zealand does both. It works for fair trade rules and it is increasing the amount and the effectiveness of its aid. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Does the Minister see advantage in there being some form of multi-party agreement in terms of the commitment to reach the 0.7 percent goal; if she does see an advantage in that proposal what steps is she prepared to take to try to bring it together? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I would see some advantage certainly in an across-Parliament agreement to move forwards in terms of overseas aid expenditure particularly given that the Leader of the Opposition has said that he does not see a need for any urgent increase in aid or any sharp increase in aid. But what I worry about is that tying it down percentage increase by percentage increase each year does limit our choices in 10 years should something of drastic occurrence hit this particular country. 
Keith Locke 
: Does the Minister agree that at the rate of increase she has just explained—that is from about 0.23 percent when Labour became the Government in 1999 to 0.23 percent in last year’s Budget to 0.28 percent in 3 years’ time—it will be about the end of this century before New Zealand reaches 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) and what is the Government going to do about it? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: No I do not agree with that assumption and I would also like to point out that every year that this Government has been in office there has been a cash increase to our overseas aid budget. It is all very well to talk about percentage increases based on GNI; that is one way of measuring it. At the same time we have set up NZAID which has just been nominated by the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate as one of the most effective aid agencies in the world. That did not cost tuppence to achieve. 
Keith Locke 
: Has the Minister seen in the OECD report she has just referred to the strong criticisms of New Zealand’s aid levels including the statement that New Zealand was “capable of a significantly larger fiscal effort for ODA.” and criticism of the lack of a Government timetable to reach the international target; and why is the Government letting New Zealand languish ignominiously near the bottom of the OECD table of aid? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: My responsibility as Minister for overseas aid is to concentrate on being effective particularly in the Pacific. I want to take the issue away from percentages and actually to note that to move from 0.28 percent to 0.7 percent in today’s dollars is to increase the budget from $360 million to about $960 million. 
Keith Locke 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I did ask a specific question on whether she had seen in the OECD report the criticisms of New Zealand aid levels. She did not refer to the OECD report at all in her answer. 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Yes I have read it. 
Keith Locke 
: When Tony Blair can trumpet a target of 0.7 percent of GNI by 2015 as he has done very loudly in the last few days when the European Union is galvanised by that target and when Norm Kirk reached 0.5 percent of GNI in the 1970s why cannot the New Zealand Government take action now particularly when there is so much poverty in the world? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I would really advocate that the member reads the article “A game of double bluff” by George Monbiot—whom he has quoted to me in this House before—when he talks about Blair playing one game with aid money and another game behind the scenes in blocking trade through using his friend Mr Mandelson in the European Union. 
Keith Locke 
: I seek leave to table the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate report referred to in my questions. 
Document not tabled. 
Keith Locke 
: I seek leave to table an article in the  
Dominion Post  
by Trevor Richards dated 1 June 2005 and entitled “Sharing our good fortune” which strongly criticises the Government policy in this area. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Is this the same OECD whose economic arm is always recommending to developed countries that they reduce the size of their government and does she have any plans to tell the OECD to have its economic arm talk to the cooperation arm so that they can tell the same story? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Not only would I like the economic arm to talk to its Development Co-operation Directorate arm but I would also like it to talk to the environmental arm. In fact some policy cohesion in the OECD would be totally appreciated.