Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026
Ms MILLER-FROST (Boothby) (19:27): This government is putting significant effort into being the preferred partner in our region. When we came to government in 2022, we inherited a situation where the Pacific region had been largely ignored and where the concerns of the region and the existential threat of climate change were not only ignored but also mocked by the previous government.
Yet our relationships with our neighbours in the Pacific and Asia are vital for our security and pose significant opportunities. Nature abhors a vacuum, and, when the previous government vacated the Pacific, it gave opportunities for other countries to fill that void. After the 2025 election, there was significant work to be done by our government to rebuild our relationships with our neighbours and to demonstrate again that we could be a trusted and valued partner, to demonstrate that we care about the things that they care about and that we take our shared future seriously.
Australia's international development policy guides how Australia works with partners to advance a peaceful, stable and prosperous future for our region, ensuring the program is responsive to today's complex and interconnected challenges. As profound global challenges reshape our world, development needs across the Indo-Pacific and beyond are intensifying. Australia stands with its partners.
Development assistance is a key pillar of Australia's statecraft alongside diplomacy, trade and defence, working to advance our interests in a fairer, safer and more secure world. In 2025-26, Australia will deliver over $5 billion in official development assistance, an increase of $135.8 million on 2024-25. This reflects the government's commitment to a strategic, regionally focused and resilient development program to build prosperity in the region.
In a time of global instability, Australia is repositioning its development program to where our national interests are most at stake. Three quarters of Australia's total ODA will directly benefit the Indo-Pacific, the highest share in four decades. This budget makes deliberate and disciplined choices to direct more support where it has the greatest impact—economic resilience, health systems, climate action and humanitarian assistance.
Australia's development program has been rebuilt and refocused to be more responsive, targeted and effective, ensuring it delivers results for our region and advances Australia's long-term interests. Australia's development investments are focused on delivering targeted, high-impact investments to support our region's economic and health resilience, climate action and humanitarian need.
A new economic resilience package to be delivered over five years will support workforce skills, financial systems, job creation, small finance and economic reform in the Pacific and South-East Asia. The government will also guarantee Australian bank presence in the Pacific and Timor-Leste for the next 10 years. These measures complement and reinforce Australia's major investments in critical infrastructure and digital transformation, driving trade and economic stability.
A new three-year health resilience package will strengthen health systems and pandemic preparedness in the Pacific and South-East Asia. This investment will help nations to prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks while maintaining essential services for HIV, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, family planning and sexual and reproductive health. By addressing urgent needs now, this package strengthens regional preparedness, ensuring our partners are better equipped to manage future health challenges.
Our new $100 million Australia-Indonesia health partnership will be delivered over eight years, focused on human and animal health security, emergency response capacity and health system resilience. Importantly, there is also a $355 million climate action package over four years to help the Pacific and South-East Asian communities withstand climate related shocks, because we know that sea-level rises and stronger and more frequent storms are not a laughing matter.
Australia is part of the Pacific and South-East Asian regions. They are our neighbours, and we are theirs. We want to be the preferred partner of choice.
We want to play our part. The treaty signed by the Prime Minister with our nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, demonstrates how important this region is to us, and our overseas development strategies and funding build on this focus. Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Debate adjourned. Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:33