22/10/2026
"Pauline's Piffle" #7 with Phil Coorey (Fin Rev)
You didn't mention in your speech but you've been critical in the past about foreign aid. About foreign aid?
Over the past decade or so, as we've seen the sort of rise of China in the region and governments here of both persuasions, Coalition and Labor, have increasingly relied on aid as a form of soft diplomacy, especially in the Pacific, to push back at the incursion, if you like, of China.
Have you changed your views on foreign aid?
Do you see a value in it from a geostrategic position? Are you still, you know, largely opposed?
Are you still of the same view as you held for a long time?
(National Press Club, 17 June 2026)