Economic and trade policy

Budget priorities

Government spending on Australia’s foreign policy efforts, such as defence and foreign aid, appears to be a lower priority for most Australians than domestic issues such as health and education.

When Australians are asked about the federal budget, there is extensive public support for increased spending on health (81%) and education (74%). Few say the government should increase spending on border protection (32%), defence (31%) and foreign aid (17%). Almost half (47%) say spending on social welfare should be increased.

Foreign aid is the only policy area in which more Australians say that federal government spending should be decreased rather than increased. Almost half (47%) say they would decrease spending on foreign aid, compared with 17% saying they would increase spending.

Misperceptions about the size of the aid budget may be a factor in these responses. The 2018 Lowy Institute Poll found that on average, Australians think 14% of the budget is spent on aid, but only 10% should be spent on aid. Australia’s aid budget is approximately 0.8% of the federal budget.

Economic and trade policy
Budget priorities

Question

Now about the federal budget. If you were making up the budget for the federal government this year, would you personally increase spending, decrease spending or keep spending about the same for:

This question was asked in 2019.

0%
25%
50%
75%
100%

Health

Education

Social welfare

Border protection

Defence

Foreign aid

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