Overseas aid advisers to lose 25pc of salaries
CANBERRA TIMES The Gillard Government must stop paying huge salaries to aid officials working in poor countries, Australia's main foreign aid group said yesterday. The strong reaction from the Australian Council for International Development came after Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the huge salaries paid to Australians administering aid programs would be trimmed by one-quarter. He confirmed the Government would axe 257 long-term positions from 11 different programs over two years. Council executive director Marc Purcell said reducing advisers must be the first step as part of a larger reform and questioning of what made foreign aid effective. Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said the high level of advisers' salaries had been raised with her by heads of state and foreign ministers from the region. ''This is a matter of concern to them, that Australian aid is being absorbed by payments to the officials in charge of the aid program an