&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span&gt;BRIDGING THE GAP: THE ABSENCE OF NON-HATRED AND MINORITY PROTECTION CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIAN OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE — A UNIVERSAL FRAMEWORK WITH BANGLADESH AS THE PRIMARY CASE STUDY&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span&gt;A Policy Brief Proposing a Universal Human Rights and Equality Conditions Framework for Australia’s Official Development Assistance, with Bangladesh as the Primary Illustrative Case&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This policy brief identifies and addresses a systemic structural failure in Australia's official development assistance (ODA) framework: the complete absence of non-hatred, minority protection, and human rights conditionality from bilateral aid agreements with developing countries. Using Bangladesh — Australia's largest bilateral ODA recipient in South Asia, receiving approximately $110.3 million in 2025–26 — as the primary case study, the brief demonstrates that Australia's Development Partnership Plans, including the Bangladesh DPP 2025–2030, contain no benchmarks requiring recipient governments to promote tolerance, prohibit incitement to hatred, or protect religious and ethnic minorities. This silence has concrete consequences: approximately 3,100 incidents of violence against minority communities have been documented in Bangladesh between August 2024 and February 2026, occurring with near-total impunity and state denial.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The brief examines Australia's international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Responsibility to Protect framework, and finds that existing ODA policy is inconsistent with those obligations. Drawing on the European Union's Cotonou Agreement 'essential elements' conditionality model, the brief proposes a universal Human Rights and Equality Conditions Framework (HECF) applicable to all Australian bilateral ODA agreements, covering seven core conditions: women's rights and empowerment; girls' and minority education access; equality in employment and public life; religious freedom and minority protection; LGBT non-criminalisation; prohibition of hate speech and hate crimes; and parliamentary capacity building in human rights law-making.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The brief further proposes extending conditionality beyond government-to-government ODA to encompass Australian NGOs, ACNC-registered charities, and Deductible Gift Recipients operating overseas, through targeted legislative amendments to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Regulation 2013 (Cth) and the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth). The Australia Awards Scholarships program is identified as a further instrument requiring reform to guarantee equitable access for women and minorities. Migration and visa measures are proposed as a graduated conditionality tool under an amended Migration Act 1958 (Cth). Finally, drawing on the deportation of Bangladeshi preacher Mizanur Rahman Azhari in April 2026 and documented radicalisation trends assessed by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, the brief argues that unconditional ODA to source countries for intolerant ideologies constitutes an active subsidy of national security risks to the Australian community.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Twenty-four recommendations are advanced, with the 2027 mid-cycle review of the Bangladesh DPP identified as the immediate opportunity for reform.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;