Greens spokesperson for international aid Senator Lee Rhiannon has said the Abbott government has trashed our overseas aid program with cuts totalling $11 billion since they came into office, with the bulk of the remaining aid budget directed away from programs targeting poverty alleviation.

"It is shameful that the primary purpose of aid programs under the Liberal/National government must be for Australia's national interest and not poverty reduction," Senator Rhiannon said.

Lee's opinion piece on gender and the aid program was published today.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is right to focus Australian aid on women and children, but the current cuts to the budget and the further alignment of Australian aid with our own national interest that Ms Bishop is promoting runs counter to this goal.

Commenting on the release of a landmark Médecins Sans Frontières report on the response to the Ebola epidemic, Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said:

“This report shows us how inadequate the response to the Ebola crisis was.

“One year on from the outbreak of the Ebola crisis, it’s clear that we do not just need our aid budget ‘saved’ from further cuts – we need it restored.

“From the beginning, the Greens called on Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop to assist the growing international response by sending a large scale on-ground team to West Africa.

The Greens will today introduce into Parliament a Bill that includes gender equality assessments with our overseas aid by linking reporting requirements for all programs with their impact on women and girls in low income countries.

“Foreign Minister Julie Bishop claims that gender equality is one of the key tenets of her approach to aid, yet she has presided over the biggest cuts to the aid budget. Minister Bishop has cut $11.7 billion in just 18 months of being in office,” said Greens spokesperson for International Aid and Development Senator Lee Rhiannon.

Senator RHIANNON (New South Wales) (12:46):

I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted.

The speech read as follows-

The Australian Greens say a new departmental report on aid has criticised the Abbott government for missing its aid target.

Greens spokesperson for International Aid and Development Senator Lee Rhiannon said: "Performance of Australian Aid 2013-14, released yesterday, reveals the government has missed its 80% target for satisfactory ratings in gender equality.

"This report reveals that the claim of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop that gender equality is a priority for Australian aid is just empty words.

The Greens are again calling on all parties to work together to develop a legislative framework for Australia's overseas aid spending after the Abbott Government cut a further $3.7 billion from the aid budget as part of the MYEFO mini budget update.

"The Abbott government has taken robbing the aid budget to fund their own domestic policies to the next level of cruelty, with total cuts by his government now around the $11 billion figure," Acting Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP said.