Latest news with #NZ100


Otago Daily Times
04-07-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
New citizens say family in Gaza wish they were dead
A woman from Gaza who has made a home in Dunedin says the last news she heard of her family was they wished they were dead. Sabreen Alsaadoni took an oath to become a New Zealand citizen at the Dunedin Town Hall on Wednesday after escaping Gaza in 2015. Three of her cousins have died in the war and she has an aunt and uncle living in a camp in Gaza because their home had been destroyed. One of her cousins had been targeted and killed by a Israeli drone strike on his home. Mrs Alsaadoni said she was in contact with her aunt two weeks ago and life had become very difficult for them. "They don't have food and they can't buy anything because it's very expensive. "Their children have several diseases because there is pollution in the air. "They prefer to die." Her family in Gaza was waiting for peace, but at this stage they wanted to leave as soon as possible. Sugar cost about $NZ100 per gram and one onion was about $70, she said. They had applied for a visitor visa for New Zealand, but their application was declined. Mrs Aslaadoni's elderly grandmother, Aughia Alsaadoni, had escaped to Egypt, but was on her own with no-one to look after her. Her application to come to New Zealand was denied because she needed to have health insurance, which cost about $15,000. Mrs Alsaadoni said her mother, Jamila Alsaadoni, who is also a New Zealand citizen, cried every time she heard about an attack because she could not bring the rest of her family to New Zealand. "I can't tell you how they suffer. "My mother is crying all the time because she is afraid to lose her brothers and her sister." Although the war had escalated in October 2023, Palestinians had been under attack for a long time, she said. Mrs Alsaadoni's father, Nasouh Alsaadoni, was shot in the leg when he was just a year-old. She said some of her family escaped to Malaysia in 2015 and waited for their refugee status to be granted in New Zealand before moving here five years ago. "For a long time, we waited to be here. "We are very happy because we are in a place that respects humans and I don't feel I am different from others." When her family family arrived in New Zealand, they had just $1 to their name. Mrs Alsaadoni, who is studying tourism at the University of Otago, works with the Red Cross to help other refugees from Gaza. Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich oversaw the citizenship ceremony on Wednesday and another 138 people also became New Zealand citizens yesterday across two ceremonies.


Scoop
17-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
New Zealand Rich List Exceeds $100 Billion Amid Cost-Of-Living Crisis
New Zealand's Rich List, compiled annually by the National Business Review (NBR), boasted last week that the country's wealthiest are now collectively worth more than $NZ100 billion. The figure increased from $95.55 billion in 2024, despite a brutal cost-of-living crisis and two recessions in the past 18 months. The nation of just 5.3 million people now has 18 billionaires, up from 16 last year. A dozen newcomers, with $4.3 billion, are among 119 individuals and families profiled by the NBR, who altogether have a total of $102.1 billion—equal to more than 40 percent of the country's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Like similar reports posted internationally, the NZ list points to soaring wealth among a tiny privileged layer, even amid a gathering global economic crisis. Nine years ago the 2016 Rich List's wealth was just under $60 billion, rising to $72.6 billion two years ago. Commenting on the rapid increase in the concentration of wealth, Bryce Edwards, director of the Integrity Institute, noted: 'We are witnessing inequality grow towards heights approaching those of the early 20th century.' He described it as 'a roadmap of oligarchic power in New Zealand, complete with policy wish lists, political connections, and breathtaking displays of luxury that would make a Gilded Age robber baron blush.' New Zealand is already an extremely unequal society. According to Statistics NZ's Household Economic Survey in 2021, the richest 5 percent of individuals owned 43.1 percent of the country's wealth, while the bottom 50 percent held just 2.1 percent. Brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray, who with sister Anna Mowbray, founded Zuru Toys in 2003, topped the Rich List with $20 billion. The pair have been outspoken about their ambitions to be 'the next Apple, Google, Tesla' with a target of $10 billion in revenue within five years. Former list leader Graeme Hart is second, with an estimated net worth of $12.1 billion. Hart built his global packaging empire following his purchase of the state-owned Government Printing Office, for a vastly undervalued $23 million, during the 1984–90 Lange Labour government's public asset fire sale. Others to feature were prominent filmmaker Peter Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh, at fifth richest with a net worth of $2.6 billion. This year the NBR also launched a Women's Rich List, headed by Anna Mowbray and Lucy Liu, co-founders of online payments company Airwallex. Liu's company was valued at more than $10 billion in a capital raise in May. The publication profiled 14 women, all of them estimated to be worth between $20 and $100 million. The celebration of a handful of super-rich women comes after the right-wing coalition government last month passed the Equal Pay Amendment Act, designed to make it almost impossible for workers in female-dominated professions to claim that they are underpaid because of gender-based inequity. The primary source of the Rich Listers' fortunes is not the production of socially necessary goods and services. Their vast wealth derives almost entirely from parasitic activities such as financial investment and property speculation. Viaduct Harbour Holdings, owned by the Gibbs, Wyborn, Farmer and Green families—all of whom regularly appear on the Rich List—leases out areas of the expensive Auckland harbour waterfront to the hospitality, sports and accommodation sectors. The Gibbons, Guntons, Carters, and Wallaces have all built their fortunes on property development. A 2023 Inland Revenue Department (IRD) investigation into the wealth of the country's 311 richest individuals found that only 7 percent of their income is in a form subject to income tax. The remaining 93 percent comes from returns on investment, including financial assets and capital gains—all of which is either not taxed, or taxed at a lower rate than incomes. This privileged layer paid tax on their earnings at a rate of just 8.9 percent—less than half the 20 percent rate paid by someone on the average wage. Well-off New Zealanders are paying less tax than their peers in nine similar OECD nations, including Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, and five European countries, according to a Victoria University of Wellington study commissioned by Tax Justice Aotearoa last year. In 2024, New Zealand and Belgium were the only two OECD countries not to have a capital gains tax—though Belgium had other wealth taxes, which New Zealand does not. None of this prevents the wealthy elite from endlessly agitating for cutting corporate taxes, privatising public services, slashing welfare and cutting government 'bureaucracy,' all while seeking incentives for private sector 'risk takers.' The recent King's Birthday Honours awards celebrated former National Party finance minister Ruth Richardson, appointing her as a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit. Richardson is reviled in the working class for her infamous 1991 'Mother of all Budgets' which savagely cut welfare and thrust thousands of beneficiaries into poverty, imposing conditions of misery that still exist. The main opposition Labour Party meanwhile has consistently rejected any significant increase in tax on wealth. Despite campaigning in the 2017 election for a modest capital gains tax, in 2019 Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ruled it out. Her stance was endorsed by current leader Chris Hipkins. The Labour Party-Greens government from 2017-2023, like others throughout the world, exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to engineer a huge transfer of wealth to the ultra-rich. Property values and corporate and bank profits soared due to millions in subsidies, bailouts and tax concessions, and the Reserve Bank's quantitative easing and ultra-low interest rates. While the country has since had near back-to-back recessions, the impact has fallen entirely on the working class. The NZX50 index increased by 1,500 points or 12.74 percent during 2024, its best performance since 2020. The Reserve Bank's official cash rate cut from 5.25 to 4.75 percent last October gave the share market, dominated by investments in utilities, infrastructure and real estate, a strong boost in the final quarter of 2024. Political connections play a critical role in maintaining and boosting the wealth of the richest at the expense of ordinary people. Last year the National Party-led government delivered a massive tax cut for landlords, estimated to have cost $NZ2.9 billion, falsely claiming this would lead to more affordable rents. At the 2023 election, Rich Listers were among the most generous donors to the coalition parties, National, NZ First and ACT. Nick Mowbray gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to both National and the far-right ACT Party. Graeme Hart donated $700,000 to the right-wing parties over two years—$400k to National, $200k to ACT and $100k to NZ First. The rich are not shy about flaunting their wealth. Along with mansions and overseas apartments, several, including Peter Jackson, own private jets. Hart runs a multi-million dollar, 102-metre superyacht. A bid by Anna Mowbray and her husband, rugby player Ali Williams, to put a helipad on their property in the exclusive Auckland suburb of Westmere currently faces strong opposition from nearby residents and community groups. Speaking for the entire ruling class, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon gushed over the NBR's report: 'Isn't it fantastic that we have got people with ambition, aspiration and positivity, and we should be celebrating success.' But under Luxon's government, there is an escalating social disaster. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs and Radio NZ reported on June 9 that the net worth of all households declined by $4.185 billion in 2024. Already in 2023, 36.1 percent of households were scraping by on income that was either 'not enough' or 'only just' enough, according to Statistics NZ. In 2024, the Treasury estimated that nearly one-in-five children, 17.7 percent, were living in poverty. The New Zealand Food Network estimated this year that 500,000 people, a tenth of the population, is regularly dependent on food parcels. 16 June 2025


The Advertiser
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
New Zealand takes scalpel to foreign aid budget
New Zealand has slashed foreign aid to its lowest level in four years, with specific cuts to climate finance, in a move decried by the international development sector as a broken promise. Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled the coalition's second budget on Thursday, with a headline deficit of $NZ14.7 billion ($A13.5 billion). Budget documents show official development assistance (ODA) spending dropping from $NZ1.1 billion last year to $NZ999 million this year, its lowest level since 2021. These figures do not include a drop in the cost of managing ODA, also cut by seven per cent from $NZ100 million to $NZ92.7 million. In parliament, Ms Willis said the $NZ100 million cut was in the area of climate finance - which is aid given to developing nations to help them adapt or mitigate to the threat of global warming. Budget papers show the government replacing a previous $NZ200 million annual commitment with a $NZ100 million budget line, but with no guarantees it will be spend on climate finance. "The new funding will be used for (aid) projects with a priority focus on the Pacific. It will not be exclusively focused on meeting climate finance objectives," the budget states. Terence Wood, ANU-based development fellow, called the new budget a "grim tale". "When inflation is taken into account, by 2026/27 New Zealand aid will have fallen to 2019 levels, and it will have done so over a period where - thanks to climate change, illness and war - the need for aid has been rising fast," he wrote. According to World Vision, New Zealand's aid is now 0.24 per cent of gross national income, well short of the UN-backed goal of 0.7 per cent. World Vision New Zealand director Grant Bayldon said the cut in climate finance amounted to New Zealand "turning its back on the Pacific region". "New Zealand made a clear commitment under the Paris Agreement to support people in the world's most vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change," he said. "Many of them are our Pacific neighbours, where children are already facing the devastating impact of climate change. We promised to stand with them – now we're pulling back." Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa's climate justice lead, said the cuts came after New Zealand made commitments to triple climate financing by 2030 at the UN's climate summit last year. "This is really hard to understand as anything other than a breaking of that promise and a betrayal of our Pacific neighbours," he told NZ website Newsroom. Ms Willis told parliament Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters argued for more aid. "Members will not be surprised to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has made a case for more funding, and this will be looked at in future budgets," she told parliament in her budget speech. The tough budgetary treatment for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) stands in contrast to the coalition's first budget. In 2024, Mr Peters was able to spare MFAT from cuts averaging seven per cent to most agencies, instead given a one per cent reduction. Mr Peters - who was in Adelaide on Friday for the six-monthly dialogue with Australia's foreign minister - did not respond to a request for comment. In its most recent budget, Australia increased foreign aid in real terms, but the amount also fell to 0.18 per cent of GNI. New Zealand has slashed foreign aid to its lowest level in four years, with specific cuts to climate finance, in a move decried by the international development sector as a broken promise. Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled the coalition's second budget on Thursday, with a headline deficit of $NZ14.7 billion ($A13.5 billion). Budget documents show official development assistance (ODA) spending dropping from $NZ1.1 billion last year to $NZ999 million this year, its lowest level since 2021. These figures do not include a drop in the cost of managing ODA, also cut by seven per cent from $NZ100 million to $NZ92.7 million. In parliament, Ms Willis said the $NZ100 million cut was in the area of climate finance - which is aid given to developing nations to help them adapt or mitigate to the threat of global warming. Budget papers show the government replacing a previous $NZ200 million annual commitment with a $NZ100 million budget line, but with no guarantees it will be spend on climate finance. "The new funding will be used for (aid) projects with a priority focus on the Pacific. It will not be exclusively focused on meeting climate finance objectives," the budget states. Terence Wood, ANU-based development fellow, called the new budget a "grim tale". "When inflation is taken into account, by 2026/27 New Zealand aid will have fallen to 2019 levels, and it will have done so over a period where - thanks to climate change, illness and war - the need for aid has been rising fast," he wrote. According to World Vision, New Zealand's aid is now 0.24 per cent of gross national income, well short of the UN-backed goal of 0.7 per cent. World Vision New Zealand director Grant Bayldon said the cut in climate finance amounted to New Zealand "turning its back on the Pacific region". "New Zealand made a clear commitment under the Paris Agreement to support people in the world's most vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change," he said. "Many of them are our Pacific neighbours, where children are already facing the devastating impact of climate change. We promised to stand with them – now we're pulling back." Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa's climate justice lead, said the cuts came after New Zealand made commitments to triple climate financing by 2030 at the UN's climate summit last year. "This is really hard to understand as anything other than a breaking of that promise and a betrayal of our Pacific neighbours," he told NZ website Newsroom. Ms Willis told parliament Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters argued for more aid. "Members will not be surprised to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has made a case for more funding, and this will be looked at in future budgets," she told parliament in her budget speech. The tough budgetary treatment for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) stands in contrast to the coalition's first budget. In 2024, Mr Peters was able to spare MFAT from cuts averaging seven per cent to most agencies, instead given a one per cent reduction. Mr Peters - who was in Adelaide on Friday for the six-monthly dialogue with Australia's foreign minister - did not respond to a request for comment. In its most recent budget, Australia increased foreign aid in real terms, but the amount also fell to 0.18 per cent of GNI. New Zealand has slashed foreign aid to its lowest level in four years, with specific cuts to climate finance, in a move decried by the international development sector as a broken promise. Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled the coalition's second budget on Thursday, with a headline deficit of $NZ14.7 billion ($A13.5 billion). Budget documents show official development assistance (ODA) spending dropping from $NZ1.1 billion last year to $NZ999 million this year, its lowest level since 2021. These figures do not include a drop in the cost of managing ODA, also cut by seven per cent from $NZ100 million to $NZ92.7 million. In parliament, Ms Willis said the $NZ100 million cut was in the area of climate finance - which is aid given to developing nations to help them adapt or mitigate to the threat of global warming. Budget papers show the government replacing a previous $NZ200 million annual commitment with a $NZ100 million budget line, but with no guarantees it will be spend on climate finance. "The new funding will be used for (aid) projects with a priority focus on the Pacific. It will not be exclusively focused on meeting climate finance objectives," the budget states. Terence Wood, ANU-based development fellow, called the new budget a "grim tale". "When inflation is taken into account, by 2026/27 New Zealand aid will have fallen to 2019 levels, and it will have done so over a period where - thanks to climate change, illness and war - the need for aid has been rising fast," he wrote. According to World Vision, New Zealand's aid is now 0.24 per cent of gross national income, well short of the UN-backed goal of 0.7 per cent. World Vision New Zealand director Grant Bayldon said the cut in climate finance amounted to New Zealand "turning its back on the Pacific region". "New Zealand made a clear commitment under the Paris Agreement to support people in the world's most vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change," he said. "Many of them are our Pacific neighbours, where children are already facing the devastating impact of climate change. We promised to stand with them – now we're pulling back." Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa's climate justice lead, said the cuts came after New Zealand made commitments to triple climate financing by 2030 at the UN's climate summit last year. "This is really hard to understand as anything other than a breaking of that promise and a betrayal of our Pacific neighbours," he told NZ website Newsroom. Ms Willis told parliament Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters argued for more aid. "Members will not be surprised to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has made a case for more funding, and this will be looked at in future budgets," she told parliament in her budget speech. The tough budgetary treatment for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) stands in contrast to the coalition's first budget. In 2024, Mr Peters was able to spare MFAT from cuts averaging seven per cent to most agencies, instead given a one per cent reduction. Mr Peters - who was in Adelaide on Friday for the six-monthly dialogue with Australia's foreign minister - did not respond to a request for comment. In its most recent budget, Australia increased foreign aid in real terms, but the amount also fell to 0.18 per cent of GNI. New Zealand has slashed foreign aid to its lowest level in four years, with specific cuts to climate finance, in a move decried by the international development sector as a broken promise. Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled the coalition's second budget on Thursday, with a headline deficit of $NZ14.7 billion ($A13.5 billion). Budget documents show official development assistance (ODA) spending dropping from $NZ1.1 billion last year to $NZ999 million this year, its lowest level since 2021. These figures do not include a drop in the cost of managing ODA, also cut by seven per cent from $NZ100 million to $NZ92.7 million. In parliament, Ms Willis said the $NZ100 million cut was in the area of climate finance - which is aid given to developing nations to help them adapt or mitigate to the threat of global warming. Budget papers show the government replacing a previous $NZ200 million annual commitment with a $NZ100 million budget line, but with no guarantees it will be spend on climate finance. "The new funding will be used for (aid) projects with a priority focus on the Pacific. It will not be exclusively focused on meeting climate finance objectives," the budget states. Terence Wood, ANU-based development fellow, called the new budget a "grim tale". "When inflation is taken into account, by 2026/27 New Zealand aid will have fallen to 2019 levels, and it will have done so over a period where - thanks to climate change, illness and war - the need for aid has been rising fast," he wrote. According to World Vision, New Zealand's aid is now 0.24 per cent of gross national income, well short of the UN-backed goal of 0.7 per cent. World Vision New Zealand director Grant Bayldon said the cut in climate finance amounted to New Zealand "turning its back on the Pacific region". "New Zealand made a clear commitment under the Paris Agreement to support people in the world's most vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change," he said. "Many of them are our Pacific neighbours, where children are already facing the devastating impact of climate change. We promised to stand with them – now we're pulling back." Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa's climate justice lead, said the cuts came after New Zealand made commitments to triple climate financing by 2030 at the UN's climate summit last year. "This is really hard to understand as anything other than a breaking of that promise and a betrayal of our Pacific neighbours," he told NZ website Newsroom. Ms Willis told parliament Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters argued for more aid. "Members will not be surprised to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has made a case for more funding, and this will be looked at in future budgets," she told parliament in her budget speech. The tough budgetary treatment for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) stands in contrast to the coalition's first budget. In 2024, Mr Peters was able to spare MFAT from cuts averaging seven per cent to most agencies, instead given a one per cent reduction. Mr Peters - who was in Adelaide on Friday for the six-monthly dialogue with Australia's foreign minister - did not respond to a request for comment. In its most recent budget, Australia increased foreign aid in real terms, but the amount also fell to 0.18 per cent of GNI.


West Australian
23-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
New Zealand takes scalpel to foreign aid budget
New Zealand has slashed foreign aid to its lowest level in four years, with specific cuts to climate finance, in a move decried by the international development sector as a broken promise. Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled the coalition's second budget on Thursday, with a headline deficit of $NZ14.7 billion ($A13.5 billion). Budget documents show official development assistance (ODA) spending dropping from $NZ1.1 billion last year to $NZ999 million this year, its lowest level since 2021. These figures do not include a drop in the cost of managing ODA, also cut by seven per cent from $NZ100 million to $NZ92.7 million. In parliament, Ms Willis said the $NZ100 million cut was in the area of climate finance - which is aid given to developing nations to help them adapt or mitigate to the threat of global warming. Budget papers show the government replacing a previous $NZ200 million annual commitment with a $NZ100 million budget line, but with no guarantees it will be spend on climate finance. "The new funding will be used for (aid) projects with a priority focus on the Pacific. It will not be exclusively focused on meeting climate finance objectives," the budget states. Terence Wood, ANU-based development fellow, called the new budget a "grim tale". "When inflation is taken into account, by 2026/27 New Zealand aid will have fallen to 2019 levels, and it will have done so over a period where - thanks to climate change, illness and war - the need for aid has been rising fast," he wrote. According to World Vision, New Zealand's aid is now 0.24 per cent of gross national income, well short of the UN-backed goal of 0.7 per cent. World Vision New Zealand director Grant Bayldon said the cut in climate finance amounted to New Zealand "turning its back on the Pacific region". "New Zealand made a clear commitment under the Paris Agreement to support people in the world's most vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change," he said. "Many of them are our Pacific neighbours, where children are already facing the devastating impact of climate change. We promised to stand with them – now we're pulling back." Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa's climate justice lead, said the cuts came after New Zealand made commitments to triple climate financing by 2030 at the UN's climate summit last year. "This is really hard to understand as anything other than a breaking of that promise and a betrayal of our Pacific neighbours," he told NZ website Newsroom. Ms Willis told parliament Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters argued for more aid. "Members will not be surprised to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has made a case for more funding, and this will be looked at in future budgets," she told parliament in her budget speech. The tough budgetary treatment for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) stands in contrast to the coalition's first budget. In 2024, Mr Peters was able to spare MFAT from cuts averaging seven per cent to most agencies, instead given a one per cent reduction. Mr Peters - who was in Adelaide on Friday for the six-monthly dialogue with Australia's foreign minister - did not respond to a request for comment. In its most recent budget, Australia increased foreign aid in real terms, but the amount also fell to 0.18 per cent of GNI.


Perth Now
23-05-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
New Zealand takes scalpel to foreign aid budget
New Zealand has slashed foreign aid to its lowest level in four years, with specific cuts to climate finance, in a move decried by the international development sector as a broken promise. Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled the coalition's second budget on Thursday, with a headline deficit of $NZ14.7 billion ($A13.5 billion). Budget documents show official development assistance (ODA) spending dropping from $NZ1.1 billion last year to $NZ999 million this year, its lowest level since 2021. These figures do not include a drop in the cost of managing ODA, also cut by seven per cent from $NZ100 million to $NZ92.7 million. In parliament, Ms Willis said the $NZ100 million cut was in the area of climate finance - which is aid given to developing nations to help them adapt or mitigate to the threat of global warming. Budget papers show the government replacing a previous $NZ200 million annual commitment with a $NZ100 million budget line, but with no guarantees it will be spend on climate finance. "The new funding will be used for (aid) projects with a priority focus on the Pacific. It will not be exclusively focused on meeting climate finance objectives," the budget states. Terence Wood, ANU-based development fellow, called the new budget a "grim tale". "When inflation is taken into account, by 2026/27 New Zealand aid will have fallen to 2019 levels, and it will have done so over a period where - thanks to climate change, illness and war - the need for aid has been rising fast," he wrote. According to World Vision, New Zealand's aid is now 0.24 per cent of gross national income, well short of the UN-backed goal of 0.7 per cent. World Vision New Zealand director Grant Bayldon said the cut in climate finance amounted to New Zealand "turning its back on the Pacific region". "New Zealand made a clear commitment under the Paris Agreement to support people in the world's most vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change," he said. "Many of them are our Pacific neighbours, where children are already facing the devastating impact of climate change. We promised to stand with them – now we're pulling back." Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa's climate justice lead, said the cuts came after New Zealand made commitments to triple climate financing by 2030 at the UN's climate summit last year. "This is really hard to understand as anything other than a breaking of that promise and a betrayal of our Pacific neighbours," he told NZ website Newsroom. Ms Willis told parliament Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters argued for more aid. "Members will not be surprised to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has made a case for more funding, and this will be looked at in future budgets," she told parliament in her budget speech. The tough budgetary treatment for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) stands in contrast to the coalition's first budget. In 2024, Mr Peters was able to spare MFAT from cuts averaging seven per cent to most agencies, instead given a one per cent reduction. Mr Peters - who was in Adelaide on Friday for the six-monthly dialogue with Australia's foreign minister - did not respond to a request for comment. In its most recent budget, Australia increased foreign aid in real terms, but the amount also fell to 0.18 per cent of GNI.