SWFA Budget Update

SWFA Budget Update

Baptist Advocacy Update April 2025

Can our Budget create a Safer World?

Last Tuesday night, my eyes were on the Australian Federal Budget. With a Federal Election looming, and the financial stress felt by a growing number of Australians, this budget is one of particular importance and significance.

One of the important issues at the top of my mind is one that doesn’t rate much of a mention in most discussions – Australia’s foreign aid.

In a single year, Australian Aid reaches millions, including 2.38 million receiving direct assistance, 248,000 able to attend school, 10 million immunised and 240,000 women and girls supported after violence. The work done by Australian Aid saves lives, and honours the Godly principles of neighbourly love and justice.

But foreign aid is under attack. Since my previous update on this topic in September, the US government has reduced their foreign aid by a catastrophic 83%, and the UK is set to divert money away from humanitarian aid to military spending.

But where others step away, we can step up – as individuals, as a nation, and as God’s church – that is where the Safer World for All campaign comes in.


Safer World for All

Organised by Micah Australia, the Safer World for All campaign is a platform designed to help Australians collectively raise their voice to inspire our leaders to act boldly and mercifully; to see foreign aid stabilised and supported, and for a pathway to be made to increase humanitarian assistance from 0.68% to 1% of the Federal Budget.

As Baptist World Aid is an official partner of the movement, our team has had many opportunities to partner with Micah on this initiative:

  • The SFWA campaign has conducted 55 meetings with our federal elected representatives over the last 6 months – I was glad to be a part of a thoughtful and comprehensive meeting with the Hon. Josh Wilson MP, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy and Member for Fremantle.
  • Others in the team have been conducting workshops at schools across the nation; our Church Relationship Manager in WA, Ed Devine has been visiting schools across the State, gathering signatures to send and present to MPs across the country.
  • Finally, Micah Australia have organised Electorate Forums in critical seats to engage the candidates in the upcoming Federal Election, including in the seat of Deakin where our Advocacy Policy Manager Mike Bartlett recently had the privilege of boldly advocating for the life-saving work of Australian Aid.


So, how did last week’s budget stack up?

The good news is foreign aid remains stable. With a $135m increase, Australia’s budget for foreign aid now sits at $5.1 billion, and is directing much of its spending projects in the Asia-Pacific region that have been most affected by the cuts to USAID. As Micah’s Executive Director Tim Costello reflected, “In a world where the US and UK are retreating, Australia’s decision to hold the line and lift aid funding is a principled and strategic move”. The message of Safer World for All is cutting through to both those in power and with key figures in the Opposition and crossbench.

However more can be done: using the measure of Gross National Income, we have slipped from 0.19% to 0.18%, and as a measure of the budget, we have gone from 0.68% to 0.65% – just one tenth of our Defence spend.

The opportunity for Australia to provide security, safety, stability and compassion in our world is immense. Where others step away, we can step up, and in the Treasurer’s own words – “we’ve come a long way but there’s more work to do”

I couldn’t agree more.


Getting involved

If these issues press your heart, I would encourage you to add your name to the growing number of Australians in the campaign. The heads of Australia’s Christian denominations have written to the leaders of the major parties, but we all have a part to play.

Follow the link here to join the church petition as an individual, as a whole church, or as a Christian workplace or organisation. You’ll find summaries and up to date information and videos that can be easily shared with your church and community. More resources can be found here, including the Church engagement toolkit.

As always you are welcome and encouraged to lend your financial support to the life-saving Gospel work of Baptist World Aid Australia where it’s needed most.

And finally, as you consider your vote and voice in the upcoming Election, please pray. Pray for our local leaders and politicians, that those with conviction have sway with their party rooms and party leadership, and that this coming election not be marked by division, but instead marked by bold, life-saving love.


Theo Doraisamy (left) meets with MP Josh Wilson with other Safer World for All campaigners.

Picture 2


Student Representative Council members at Austin Cove Baptist College with their signed SFWA postcards.

Author Theo Doraisamy is the Advocacy Support Volunteer for Baptist World Aid. He is a member of the Baptist Advocacy Roundtable and the Pacific Australian Emerging Leaders Network, a joint initiative between Micah Australia and the Pacific Conference of Churches. He is a secondary teacher in his day job.

Join the Safer World for All campaign here.

Email Ed Devine at ed.devine@baptistworldaid.org.au to arrange a School or Church visit for Safer World for All.

Follow Baptist World Aid’s work here.

Follow Micah Australia here.

Stand with Myanmar

Stand with Myanmar

Baptist Advocacy Update September 2024

Three years on from a devastating military coup, over 3 million are displaced due to the Myanmar civil war, with the UN reporting that over 18 million within the country are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

In solidarity with Myanmar, including the 17 Myanmar congregations in Western Australia alone, we strongly urge Australians everywhere to lend their voices to the cause.

Petition and direct advocacy can produce real, tangible outcomes. Following 2023’s Converge gathering, the Baptist community welcomed the Federal Government’s imposition of sanctions on Myanmar’s military junta—who seized power after ousting the democratically elected government in 2021. As the Baptist family prepares for another Converge gathering this month in support of Australia’s homeless, we must remember that advocacy can have a powerful and lasting impact.

So we must not forget Myanmar. Baptist Churches WA joins its voice with its national partners including Australian Baptist Ministries, Baptist World Aid, Baptist Mission Australia and all of the Baptist state branches for Stand With Myanmar—a nation-wide call to action that all Australian Baptists can engage in. While this campaign is ongoing and you can get involved at any time, the target period will be from now until September 15 2024. During this time, you can show your support by taking any of the following actions;

By taking these steps, we push the government closer to considering the following outcomes

  • Further sanctions on industries that provide arms and supplies to the military junta.
  • Partnering with ASEAN to deny the junta’s attempts at legitimacy.
  • Condemning conscription in Myanmar.
  • Increasing humanitarian aid and visa obligations.

May the Baptist Churches help chart a way forward to help the Australian government act hand-in-hand with its brothers and sisters in Myanmar in the pursuit of peace and justice.

Advocacy for tangible outcomes. Australia for Myanmar. Let us stand—and act—together.

Author Theo Doraisamy is a member of the Baptist Advocacy Roundtable and the Pacific Australian Emerging Leaders Network, a joint initiative between Micah Australia and the Pacific Conference of Churches. He is a secondary teacher in his day job.

Sign up for Stand with Myanmar here.

A Call for Generous Love

A Call for Generous Love

Baptist Advocacy Update July 2024

 

Government spending affects all Australian residents, and in times of financial hardship at home, it can be tempting to forget our global neighbours – those in the Pacific, Asia, African and the Middle-East who face the threat of violence, famine and the brunt of the climate crisis.   

Engaging with politics and government can be difficult and divisive for most – and last May’s Federal Budget is no exception. Policy matters will always require wisdom and clarity, but for Christians, it also requires God’s most important commandment – love.

As part of the Baptist family, we are grateful to Baptist World Aid’s leadership on this issue. As an ACFID accredited agency, they graciously and persistently steward resources to provide material aid to God’s children worldwide. We therefore welcome, and take seriously, the response from Baptist World Aid on the Federal Budget (which we encourage you to read in full here – https://baptistworldaid.org.au/2024/05/17/2024-budget/)

As Mike Bartlett, Baptist World Aid’s Advocacy Policy Manager, writes, “Australia remains one of the least generous countries in the world per capita among developed nations” – with Australia’s foreign aid giving expected to drop from 0.19% of Gross National Income (already our record low), down to 0.14% by 2036.

Despite some stabilisation of our nation’s giving and new support for combating climate change, Australia’s aid remains dangerously low, and not a true reflection of the generosity this nation is capable of. 

In the face of an increasingly politically, ecologically and economically unstable world, Australia can show leadership and do more.

So, let us lead with love.

Jesus calls us to love our neighbour – and one way we can rise to the challenge is by speaking up, and using our voice as advocates.

Micah Australia, a Christian advocacy movement of which Baptist World Aid is a proud member, has initiated a campaign called A Safer World for All. Their call is to raise our aid budget from 0.19% to 0.37% by 2027 – a sensible, achievable action from our government that would make a tangible difference in our world.

By lending your voice today, you can show that Australia’s Christian community remains committed to showing love and compassion to our neighbours that need it most, and believe that our foreign aid budget can and should reflect that commitment. 

Add your voice today – https://baptistworldaid.org.au/safer-world-for-all/

Author Theo Doraisamy is a member of the Baptist Advocacy Roundtable and the Pacific Australian Emerging Leaders Network, a joint initiative between Micah Australia and the Pacific Conference of Churches. He is a secondary teacher in his day job.

For more information about Baptist World Aid in Western Australia, please contact ed.devine@baptistworldaid.org.au