Australia says aid is not charity and that taxpayers expect aid expenditure to benefit their own country.
The comment was made by the Minister for International Development Concetta Fierravanti-Wells in an interview with Fairfax Media after Papua New Guinea requested that Canberra's aid be converted to direct budgetary support.
Australia's Minister for International Development, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells Photo: AFP
Australia used to give PNG funds direclty but abandoned that approach in the early 1990s because of corruption.
She said PNG renewed calls for budget support in the past and it was rejected.
Ms Fierravanti-Wells also said there was a new paradigm around aid spending and certain elements of the political spectrum in Australia did not believe that money should be spent on overseas development.
Australia had in recent years cut its aid budget which is now just above 0.2 per cent of gross national income.
