The new Federal Budget shows plans for aid to be redirected to nearby Pacific and South-East Asian countries who are facing cuts in funding from the United State's Trump administration.
The total Official Development Assistance spending budget for 2025-2026 came in at $5.097 billion, an increase of $135.87 million.
This was a 2.7% increase from the last budget, but due to inflation predictions, there is actually a small year-on-year decline in actual aid.
The billions in redirected from certain global funds, including the UN Development Program, the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Malaria and TB, and the Global Partnership for Education, and redirected with a priority to programs in the Pacific and South-East Asia.
This comes in response to recent announcements from the Trump administration that it would be pulling back its USAID programs by 83%.
Aid groups welcomed the decision to "hold the line" on aid funding in the face of global cuts, but said it was still set to fall to its "lowest level ever" as a proportion of the budget.
Australian Council For International Development's interim CEO, Matthew Maury, said while he welcomed the move from Australia to stay “holding the line” this spending was the "lowest level ever" as a proportion of the budget.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended her party's budget however, saying that in "uncertain times" the government was "ensuring more of Australia's development assistance is going to the Pacific and South-East Asia, where Australia's interests are most at stake".
"We've had to make hard strategic decisions and focus on where our development assistance can have the greatest impact," she said.
