Australia has a compelling history of international development inherited from the long- standing missionary tradition of the nations from which it was founded, with Australian international nongovernmental development and humanitarian aid organisations (INGDHOs)2
working in most developing countries around the world (Boli & Thomas 1999, p.14).3 The
creation of a government aid program in 1946 was preceded by the significant endeavors of a large number of non-governmental and missionary organisations. As a result, the Australian government directs a significant proportion of its aid budget through Australian INGDHOs (ACFID 2015, p.2, 19).
Despite the more recent emphasis on governmental responsibility and policy initiatives, the assurgency of international development and humanitarian aid as mainstream priorities by First World governments was the result of much endeavour by nongovernmental humanitarian and Christian movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.4 The legitimisation of the
activist state (Noel & Therien 1995) and the growth of internationalism (Lumsdaine 1993), both of which owe much to these organisations, have refined development assistance into what it is today - dependent on allegiance - a politically motivated, socially founded hybrid entrenched within altruistic philosophical endeavour.
The early twentieth century in Australia was a time of significant political, economic and social transition. In 1901 the first Federal Government was formed by the Protectionist Party and in 1910 the first national currency, the Australian pound, was introduced, although it was pegged to the English pound sterling. Despite the global nature of WWI, governmental forays into international development as a feasible policy initiative remained on the distant horizon (Gourevitch 2010). In stark contrast the monetary policy initiatives of Britain, to which Australia was still closely tied, alongside domestic cutbacks in borrowing, government and private expenditure, culminated in the worst recession in Australia’s history, peaking in 1931- 32.
The onset of WWII had a profound impact on the Australian economy. Prior to 1939, the Federal Government had assumed a marginal role, with international trade dictated by the
2 Sometimes designated ‘development INGO’, ‘aid and international development NGO’ or ‘humanitarian INGDO’, this study uses
the term ‘INGDHO’ to emphasise the dual focus of nongovernmental organisations in this sector on international development and
humanitarianaid and also highlight the specific humanitarian focus of this study (see ACFID 2015, p.1, 18; Boli & Thomas 1999, p.14; Langton & West 2016, p.186; also see section 3.1.2 for a more detailed discussion of this term).
3 Australia’s aid program focuses on the Indo Pacific region; however development assistance is provided to most developing
nations throughout the world primarily through the work of INGDHOs.
4 The three types of organisations founded during this period – missionary organisations, specialised humanitarian organisations,
and professional, labour and political solidarity groups – all shared more general religious or moral aims. In fact, over two-thirds of INGDHOs with founding dates before 1900 and surviving to the early 1990s explicitly mention a religion in their title (Chabbott 1999).
colony’s still-dependent relationship with the British Empire. This all changed in 1942 with the Japanese attack on Australia, resulting in the Australian Government adopting an ‘All-in’ war policy which revolutionised the economic structure and management of the nation (Dyster & Meredith 1991). Higher taxation alongside planned fiscal and economic management meant that by the end of 1945, the Australian Government had largely funded the war effort from domestic sources and was able to extend assistance to Britain.
Immediately following WWII, the Western alliance, having drawn experience from the failure of the League of Nations, created the United Nations (UN), with a structure intended to address the weaknesses of the previous body, which many held responsible for the outbreak of war so soon after the previous global conflict5. Official Development Assistance (ODA) was seen as
part of the strategic focus for securing peace, and also served as a political weapon for securing international alliances, which provided compelling reasons to maintain and increase multi- lateral government support in less developed countries. Throughout this period (1946-1965) the mass immigration policy that began in 1946 continued alongside the signing of a range of new trade agreements with nations outside the British Empire, including West Germany (1955), Japan (1957) and the USSR (1965).
It was within this context of the late 1940s and the 1950s that the Australian Government’s international development and humanitarian aid program is founded, with the first ODA
strategies directed towards Papua New Guinea in 1946, although ostensibly focused on political allegiances designed to halt the advance of communism. Following in the footsteps of various agencies6 created under the auspice of the UN designed to ensure geo-political and economic
stability, these strategic initiatives would often pull the various government agencies away from stated humanitarian and development goals (Kilby 2015; also see Gray, Bebbington & Collison 2006).
From a political perspective, the Australian Government’s involvement with humanitarian aid throughout the 1960s and 1970s continued to remain close to its UN origins with minimal funds channelled through INGDHOs. It was against this backdrop in 1974 that the Whitlam Labor government established an autonomous aid agency, the Australian Development Assistance Agency (ADAA), bringing together a number of departments towards a common goal – although due to inherent divergences in strategic priorities, essentially humanitarian
5 Importantly, unlike the League of Nations, the UN had the active participation of both the then world super powers, the United
States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
6 Following the multi-lateral framework of the UN, the development of organisations such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and
development versus foreign affairs, diplomacy and trade – there was seldom unity (Kilby 2015). In 1976 ADAA became the Australian Development Assistance Bureau (ADAB) and was made part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) portfolio. In 1987 the name changed to the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB), and in 1995 to Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). In 2010 AusAID was given executive agency status operating within DFAT, although this was rescinded on September 18, 2013, in effect reversing the autonomy and previous gains of Australia’s aid agency. DFAT’s primary mission of protecting Australia’s interests in some regards conflicting with poverty alleviation and Sustainable Development Goal initiatives (Mulligan 2013).
In post GFC-era Australia, regulation across the third sector has been in disarray. In 2013, the Federal Government’s decided to disband the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits
Commission (ACNC) after having just recently instigated this regulator the previous year, before the ACNC (Repeal) Bill (2014) itself was disbanded in 2017. The overarching landscape of humanitarian aid and development initiatives having changed significantly throughout the last century and again at a turning point as DFAT refocuses nationalistically, defining Australia’s aid program in terms of promoting ‘Australia’s national interests through contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction’ (DFAT 2018, emphasis added).