The politics of Australian foreign aid policy 1950-1972

Abstract

This thesis is a historical study of Australian foreign aid policy from 1950 to 1972, a period during which the Liberal-Country Party Coalition was in office. It is a political analysis of the objectives and underlying considerations - political, economic and humanitarian - which were the most important to Australia as a donor nation. The study draws a basic distinction between foreign aid to independent recipient countries and ’territorial aid' to Australia’s colony - Papua New Guinea. It shows how, despite the similarities, territorial aid policy was very different from foreign aid policy; for that reason, it focuses attention on aid which was given to sovereign less-developed countries. This inquiry shows that the history of foreign aid in Australia has been very much conditioned by diplomatic, strategic and, to a lesser extent, ideological considerations; that economic advantages for Australia were, for the most part, only of secondary importance, and that there was usually an altruistic expression of concern for others which was not altogether rhetorical. It also shows that the primacy of political considerations was due to the Department of Foreign Affairs, not Treasury or Trade and Industry, controlling the more important bilateral aspects of the aid programme.