Foreign Affairs is an easy target for government cuts. There are few votes in foreign aid and even fewer in foreign representation. And so it appears that the Government is about to cut some $400 million from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Budget.
Among the soft targets appear to be export development schemes and targeted aid that help medium-size Australian companies. Another target, apparently offered up by the depart to a government likely to be eager to accept, is the international public affairs branch.
The Government should be careful that its cuts are not counter-productive. It cannot at once proclaim that Australian needs to be more export-oriented and then destroy crucial assets that help Australia project itself overseas. The information branch brings knowledge about Australia to people overseas in a way that cannot be done as effectively as diplomats unfamiliar with the ways of the media. Its immediate effectiveness is hard to gauge and in the short-term might not be missed. In the long term, however, the absence of its groundwork will make commercial work in trade and tourism that much more difficult.
Similarly with the export-enhancement schemes. Without such schemes, which other countries spend enormous amounts on, Australian companies will be at a competitive disadvantage.
It is fine for the Government to insist on efficiency and to look closely at the effectiveness of its programs, but in doing so it must take a longer view and not look for easy targets in the search for an artificially set fiscal goal.