Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), also known as Union Aid Abroad, is a non-government organisation of the Australian union movement.^[1] The non-government organisation was established in 1984 as the international aid agency of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.^[2] APHEDA was initiated in the pursuit of global justice through “stronger union and social movements, sustainable development programs, global solidarity and support in times of crisis” ^[1] in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, South Africa and the Caribbean.^[3] APHEDA is also a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission.^[1]

There are four key areas in which the APHEDA organisation intends to focus on, these are dignity at work, social justice, economic equality and the realisation of human rights.^[1]

Helen McCue, a nurse practitioner originating from Australia, was employed in the Middle East as a nurse for the World Health Organization. Helen stated she was horrified by the harm to civilians which took place due to the Lebanese civil war, after the Sabra-Shatila massacre.^[4] Therefore, in 1982 she resigned from the World Health Organization to volunteer in Beirut refugee camps for the Palestinian Red Crescent.^[2]

In this volunteer position, McCue witnessed, in her words, "the deterioration of the physical, psychological, social and cultural well-being of four million Palestinians".^[2] McCue stated witness of this whilst working with the Palestinian Red Crescent was the inspiration to "broaden the base of support Palestinians and to somehow set up an organisation, based in union movement".^[2] Within Beirut refugee camps, McCue volunteered for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organisation which act in the interest of the "health and welfare of the Palestinian people".^[5]

In 1983, McCue proposed the idea of a trade union-based international humanitarian organisation to Cliff Dolan, the leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) at the time. This was supported and in 1984, the organisation to later be known as the Union Aid Abroad – Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad received its first two government grants for "humanitarian development assistance" to support overseas health workers.^[2]

At this point, the Australian Council of Trade Unions had officially contracted APHEDA as their international aid agency.

The APHEDA organisation state their purpose is driven towards the achievement of four main areas:^[10]

1. Dignity at work
2. Social justice
3. Economic equality
4. The realisation of human rights

The organisation plans to achieve this via unions, social movements, sustainable development programs, global solidarity and crisis support.^[10]

The APHEDA organisation have identified five key values in which they endeavour to operate in line with. These values refer to solidarity, equality and justice, movement-building, accountability and partnership.^[10]

APHEDA is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.^[11] The organisation derives their funding from "government funding, other grants, donations, fundraising and interest income". The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funds several of Union-Aid-APHEDA's projects offshore.^[12] Members can pay a minimum membership fee of $15.00 a month which is also contributed to the funding of Union-Aid APHEDA's offshore projects and programs.^[13] As a registered "Australian Company Limited by Guarantee", the organisation must reinvest any profits obtained back into the charity's work.^[11] In the 2019–2020 financial year, received approximately A$2,000,000 (equivalent to $2,200,000 in 2022) in donations and bequests, A$3,600,000 (equivalent to $3,900,000 in 2022) from the Australian government and made $0 revenue from the provision of goods and services. In this time, approximately A$5,000,000 (equivalent to $5,500,000 in 2022) was spent for use outside of Australia.^[14]

The governing board of APHEDA are elected by their members and the ACTU.^[15]

Volunteers of the organisation will provide unpaid services for Australian community education and/or assistance on overseas projects. In 2019–2020 financial year, volunteers devoted 330 hours to the organisation's work in community education and 3167 hours towards work on overseas projects.^[11]

Employees of APHEDA work under the Union-Aid Abroad-APHEDA Staff Agreement 2018–2019.^[16] This single enterprise agreement operates under section 185 of Fair Work Act 2009. Volunteers are not considered under this agreement.^[16]

The rise of independence movements in Indonesia occurred in 1976–2005.^[17]

In 2002, the acting prime minister John Howard's visit to Indonesia was not well received by the government officials. Government officials cancelled scheduled meetings with Howard as it was believed Australia was in support of the West Papua and Aceh independence movements.^[17] Howard claimed Australia was not in support of the political tensions in the region. However, the controversies had arisen due to Australian Aid monetary contributions towards APHEDA. At the time, APHEDA were said to be utilising funding to establish Indonesian trade union training programs. Through this, it is said APHEDA were partially responsible for the strike which occurred against the Shangri-La Hotel chain at the end of 2000^[18] for the hotel-chain workers right to freedom of association. The strike required police interference and had several legal implications for strikers. Fines were issued to the unions and staff involved lost their job.^[19]

The above behaviour was not considered by Indonesian political powers to be in line with the expectations of an Australian non-government organisation, this therefore is said to be the reason many criticisms were upheld against the organisation by some.^[18]

In the 2018-19 Australian federal budget, A$43,000,000 (equivalent to $47,148,154 in 2022) was assigned towards development aid to assist in Palestinian territories under the Australian Middle East NGO Cooperation Agreement (AMENCA 3).^[20] Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA was one of four recipients of this funding. It was suggested the use of this funding was controversial. This controversy came from APHEDA's use of funds to assist the MA’AN Development Centre, specifically to repair water points, wells, water tanks and pipelines in the area.^[20][21] The MA’AN Development Centre is located in Ramallah, their mission is to “partner and work with Palestinian NGOs and groups in the community... guided by community participation, a human rights base approach…and empowerment of the poor…”.^[22] The controversy arose due to material published by the MA’AN Development Centre which was critical of Israel.^[20][21] The criticisms referred to accusations of war crimes and promotion of the idea Israel profits from the destruction of Gaza.^[20][21] Due to APHEDA's “close affiliation” with Australian political parties, this was considered controversial by some.^[20]

Conflicts also arose in May 2002. The Fact Finding Mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories report was released by APHEDA, it was proposed this report did not reflect the neutral standpoint which is required for taxpayer-funded projects.^[18]

In April 2020, APHEDA in partnership with the Samoa First Union (SFU) conducted an inquiry into Australia's relationship with countries in the Pacific Islands region.^[23] This inquiry investigated two components of Australian Liberal Government's Stepping Up the Pacific Scheme which was commenced by Scott Morrison in November 2018 in Pacific Island countries.^[24] These two components were the Pacific Labour Scheme and Seasonal Worker Programme.^[24] APHEDA's inquiry proposed there are distinct cultural shortcomings in the Australian government's pre-departure training and employment law for seasonal workers.^[24] The unintended impact such programs are said to have upon the Pacific Island culture, e.g. the separation of families and social and cultural isolation was also addressed.^[24] It was proposed by APHEDA and SFU that the initiatives of the Australian Government are beneficial, but for the health and wellbeing of Pacific Islander people in Australian countries, the suggested current cultural shortcomings are addressed.^[24]

APHEDA's political advocacies are centred around eight key areas: global issues, anti-corruption, illicit drug and law enforcement, disasters and humanitarian affairs, gender issues, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, health and medical, peace and security, and labour conditions.^[3]