Ponying up...

Having yesterday criticised Howard's government for its disengenuous politics regarding the, now-cancelled, cricket tour of Zimbabwe, I should at least note that AusAid have increased funding to Zimbabwe.

I still wonder whether the decision to intervene would have occurred were it not for the proximity of the federal election, however this additional funding is significant. Interestingly, although the DFAT release claims Australia funding around $6 million (AUD) in 06/07, the UN's reliefweb database records only $3M (AUD), only $500,000 of which has in fact been paid.

By contrast, NZ's contribution in the same period was nil although I suspect this is incorrect having looked at NZ Aid's Fact Sheet on aid funding for Africa (perhaps this is a quirk of the reporting and Australian funding is direct whereas NZ's funding is via international bodies such as Unicef?).

Its worth having a look at norightturn's comments on Zimbabwe which, amongst other things, deals with the NZ parliament's equivocation about the 2005 Cricket NZ tour.