Lowy Institute Poll 2025 Report

Foreign aid

In 2025, the Trump administration closed the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s largest government aid agency, with the drastically reduced aid program to be administered by the US Department of State. Several European donors, including the United Kingdom, have also announced significant but less severe cuts to their aid programs, with some citing the need to fund higher defence spending.¹ These cuts have opened up funding gaps in several sectors and regions, including in the Indo-Pacific.²

Currently, the Australian government provides approximately $5 billion in official development assistance each year (representing about 0.7% of the federal budget in 2025) to developing countries, focused especially on the Pacific and Southeast Asia. This is roughly steady on spending last year in real terms.

With the government committing to a 2.5% annual increase through the next decade, the Australian aid budget is projected to plateau at around $5 billion per annum when adjusted for inflation. As a proportion of gross national income, it is forecast to gradually fall from 0.18% at present.³

In 2025, two-thirds of Australians (66%) say that the current aid budget is ‘about right’ (49%) or ‘too low’ (17%). One-third say that it is ‘too high’ (33%). Compared with 2017, this represents a significant increase of 11 points in the number who say the aid budget is ‘about right’.