Budget 2025: Overseas Aid Will Be Refocused on SE Asia and the Pacific

While some money will be refocused on the Indo-Pacific, the budget has shrunk in real terms, and the actual changes are small.

Air Force Load Master Corporal Dale Hall inspects humanitarian aid supplies aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III aircraft at RAAF Base Amberley in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on Jan. 20, 2022. LACW Kate Czerny/Australian Defence Force via Getty Images

Pacific Island nations and some countries in Southeast Asia will get a larger share of Australia’s foreign aid as the government refocuses spending in the 2025/26 Budget to provide support after the United States slashed USAID.

The changes are small within a budget that’s shrinking in real terms. And because this will be done from the existing allocation, multilateral programmes will receive less, or no, money.