The Australian Government today announced it will provide $5 million to support health and education professionals in Tonga.

These funds will ensure the salaries of Tonga's health and education workers, such as primary and secondary school teachers, doctors and nurses continue to be paid.

Australia's support aims to assist the Tongan Government to provide critical health and education services in a challenging fiscal environment, while Tonga also delivers on its reform agenda.

In recent years, Tonga has undertaken a number of important economic reforms to address its economic and development challenges. Nevertheless, in uncertain economic times, and still to fully recover from the global economic crisis, Tonga's economic growth remains slow.

This has contributed to the current significant fiscal gap in Tonga's national budget.

Tonga's commitment to sustainable debt management and maintaining the quality of public expenditure will remain a focus for development partners such as Australia. We are committed to helping Tonga continue to deliver core services for its people during these challenging times.

Australia is committed to improving the quality of education and health services for all Tongans through the Australia-Tonga Partnership for Development. An estimated 40 per cent of Australia's $19 million bilateral aid program to Tonga in 2011-12 is directed to these important sectors. – Australian High Commision, 29/02/2012.