Australia will face headwinds in its fresh bids for key United Nations positions because of deep foreign aid cuts and treatment of asylum-seekers, human rights groups and Labor have warned.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced on Wednesday that Australia would seek another term on the United Nations Security Council for the period 2029 to 2030 as well as a seat on the Human Rights Council for 2018 to 2020.
But Marc Purcell, executive director of the Australian Council for International Development – the nation's umbrella aid peak body – said $11 billion in aid cuts under the Coalition meant Australia's international reputation had suffered.
Countries that may have supported Australia's last successful bid for the Security Council had felt let down by the aid cuts, particularly African countries that were hard hit.
"There is no doubt that the cuts to the aid budget, particularly with African states, left a very bad taste in the mouth," Mr Purcell said. "Other countries … really did look askance at Australia as a fairweather friend after the cuts."
As Fairfax Media reported in May, a group of African ambassadors "implored" the government during a meeting with a parliamentary committee to reverse the cuts because of extreme levels of poverty in their countries.
On Wednesday, Kenyan high commissioner Isaiya Kabira said he had raised concerns with the Australian government about the abrupt end to successful development projects in his country. But he insisted Kenya would still talk to Canberra about future UN bids.
"We'd been trying to encourage the government to allow those projects to continue to their natural end instead of bringing immediate cuts," he said. "[But] when the time comes we would be happy to sit with Australia and see how best to progress all of our intentions."
The previous Labor government landed Australia a seat on the 15-member Security Council for two years in 2013 and 2014 – a bid that the Coalition, including Ms Bishop, criticised at the time.
However the seat proved a crucial platform for Ms Bishop to pursue Australia's interests, particularly after the downing of flight MH17.
Ms Bishop said in March she intended to bid again for a non-permanent Australian seat in the Security Council. On Monday she announced this bid would be for 2029-30, which is the first period in which there is a vacancy for which no other country is currently bidding.
Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the opposition welcomed the move. But she said the candidacy for the Human Rights Council would be complicated "when we are actually going backwards on climate change, we've had the largest aid cuts in the history of Australia … and we've also had concerns around our treatment of asylum seekers".
The Human Rights Council has been the subject of frequent criticism given its membership has often included countries responsible for abuses. Its current members include Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Congo and Kazakhstan.
Gillian Triggs, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, said Ms Bishop was properly promoting human rights as part of Australia's international engagement.
But she said Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, and particularly the penalties for immigration detention workers who speak publicly, would be "a major matter of concern to the human rights community and to the Human Rights Council itself".
