Foreign Aid is a Waste of Money

Event and Ticketing Details

Dates & Times

Wednesday 04 July
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Location

Melbourne Town Hall

90-120 Swanston Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

Get directions

The Wheeler Centre and St James Ethics Centre combine once again in 2012 to bring you another series of Intelligence Squared debates.

Established in 2002, IQ2 has spread from across the globe, bringing the traditional form of Cambridge and Oxford Unions-style debating – with two sides proposing and opposing a sharply formed motion – to Melbourne Town Hall.

From child soldiers in Sudan to gang violence in Papua New Guinea; tsunamis in the Pacific to earthquakes in New Zealand, we’re confronted with communities in need every day.

Who should we help? How can we be sure our aid dollars reach their destination? Some believe that aid traps communities in a cycle of dependence, holding them back from developing their own systems and managing their own issues. So on balance, do those dollars hurt more than they help?

And with endemic poverty in Australia’s indigenous communities and natural disaster breaking Queensland’s budget – should we ‘take care of our own’ first?

Arguing for the proposition will be Greg Sheridan (Foreign Editor, The Australian), James Goodman (Chair, AidWatch; Associate Professor in Social and Political Change, UTS) and Tim Wilson (Director, International Property and Free Trade Unit, IPA). Against it will be Martin Thomas (Head of Public Affairs and External Relations, World Vision Australia), Samah Hadid (National Director, Global Poverty Project) and Andrew Hewett (Executive Director, Oxfam; Co-Chair, Make Poverty History).

Attending this event? Use #iq2oz to tag your tweets.