Photo: Julia Gillard and Bill Gates at The Lodge in Canberra this morning (AAP: Lukas Coch)
The world's richest man, Bill Gates, met Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Canberra this morning to lobby for an increase to Australia's $5 billion overseas aid budget.
Gates in Australia
The meeting kicked off a hectic day for the Microsoft co-founder, who was to speak at the National Press Club in Canberra, meet Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, and take part in a special ABC TV Q&A program tonight.
Speaking on Radio National Breakfast, Mr Gates thanked Australians for their generosity in raising the aid budget but said more could be done.
"Australian aid is spent on a lot of very important, effective things, like health," he said.
But he said he was saddened by Australia's decision to defer increases in aid as part of this month's budget.
"When that got slowed down I was a little disappointed," Mr Gates said.
"But it [the aid budget] has been increasing and people should feel good about that."
Mr Gates now co-chairs a foundation aimed at dealing with extreme poverty and disease in developing nations, including eradicating polio.
Following his meeting, Mr Abbott said he told Mr Gates that he wanted to make sure people in need received the biggest bang for their buck out of aid spending .
"I'm sure there is always room for improvement when it comes to the administration of aid projects," Mr Abbott said.
"Julie (Bishop)I know has had some concerns over the years about whether we could do better in terms of getting the right money to the right people at the right times, and we'd love to be as constructive as we can on all of those things."
