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Thursday May 16, 2013
The rate of strokes suffered by Australians has dropped over the past 20 years, while strokes caused by an irregular heartbeat now account for ...
Thursday May 16, 2013
The massive increase in the use of mobile devices to access the internet has led to a massive increase in personal information being uploaded to th...
Thursday May 16, 2013
Asbestos hazard from ShutterstockScientists from Flinders University are trying to develop a new treatment for a highly aggressive, asbestos...
Thursday May 16, 2013
It's hard to know what Dr Ian Garthwaite is more excited about: relaying his volcano adventures from around the world, or the new research environm...
Thursday May 16, 2013
Middle-aged women who have depression are almost twice as likely to have a stroke as women the same age who are not depressed, according to new resea...


Friday May 17, 2013
Updated May 14, 2013 15:52:47 The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery believes it may have located a rare whale skul...
Friday May 17, 2013
Posted May 14, 2013 10:28:46 A bikie boss has been questioned but not charged over shootings at the weekend w...
Friday May 17, 2013
Updated May 14, 2013 12:04:30 The Tasmanian Government has put the former Hayes Prison farm on the open market....
Friday May 17, 2013
Posted May 14, 2013 11:30:19 The first round of community projects eligible for funding from the Tasmanian Bu...
Friday May 17, 2013
Updated May 14, 2013 12:08:42 The Tasmanian president of the Rebels Motorcycle Club has denied he ran a police ro...
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Academic Blogs Academic Articles Read all
May 15th, 2013
Foreign affairs: Defence spending down, more aid and spies

Does upsetting China matter?

Finding the answer to this question - and a way to overcome associated potential problems - has become ever more urgent as China's perceived assertiveness has grown. And two recent diplomatic spats in particular are worth paying attention to: the ... Read more

From the industry reaction to Australia's overseas aid budget, one might have thought Canberra's cruel bean-counters are intentionally starving Third World orphans. The budget announcement of keeping foreign aid at around 0.35% of gross national income, or almost $5.6 billion, reflects a stepping down from a forecast increase in aid to 0.38%, but still represents an overall 4% increase in available funds.

In an era of broad budgetary restraint, this not unreasonable outcome reflects commitments given by Australia in order to secure its seat on the UN Security Council last October. It also reflects a shift away from the "hard power" of Defence, with the Iraq war drifting into history, Timor-Leste no longer active, Solomons concluding and Afghanistan looking to an end. The security emphasis now is on "soft" and "secret" power, with diplomacy drifting.

In order not to further alienate Labor's Left, the government has capped aid funds allocated to housing asylum seekers at 7% of the aid budget, at $375 million. Australia's commitment to the UN's millennium development goal of 0.5% of gross national income by 2015 has now been "deferred" to 2016-17. This target will now require an extra -- and improbable -- $1 billion a year for the next four years.

Of the more aspirational commitment to the OECD's 2002 Monterey Agreement to allocate 0.7% of GDP to foreign aid by 2015, only Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands have met that goal. Australia is outside the top 10 OECD aid providers by GDP. There is, however, some small comfort in still being well ahead of Japan and the United States.

Australia's aid recipients are unlikely to protest about the deferral of intended aid increases. Indonesia -- Australia's largest aid recipient -- does not care too much about Australian aid in any case. For some in Indonesia, Australian aid is viewed through a paranoid lens as a mechanism for some vague ulterior agenda. From Australia's perspective, aid s... Read more

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Student Resource Centre
Student News

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» International student shift earns praise
(from left) Professor Nancy Cromar, Tianyi Wang and Steve Brooks, Associate Director (Admissions & Operations), Internation... read more...

» Students compete for change to represent Tas at Science and Engineering Challenge national final
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» Students compete for chance to represent Tas at Science and Engineering Challenge national final
Mount Carmel College students winYear nine and 10 students from eight schools competed at UTAS this week for the ... read more...

» Indigenous students from the Rabbitohs
Souths Cares, the charitable arm of the Rabbitohs, has produced a video about their partnership with the University of S... read more...