Foreign Policy

Advancing Australia’s international interests by supporting the Prime Minister and portfolio ministers in multilateral forums (e.g. United Nation, WTO, G20 and OECD) and regional forums (e.g. APEC, ASEAN, East Asia Summit, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Pacific Islands Forum, and the Bali Process), as well as quadrilateral and trilateral dialogues and bilateral meetings.

Promote trade and investment

$387 billion - total value of exports ↑14.8%

$377 billion - total value of imports ↑7.5%

$3.3 trillion - level of total foreign investment in Australia ↑3% percent *

* as at 31 December 2017

Reduce poverty and promote growth

$3.7 billion (estimate) for total Official Development Assistance

Priority sectors

$593 million for infrastructure and trade

$248 million for agriculture, fisheries and water

$683 million for effective governance

$654 million for education

$456 million for health

$1.3 billion for gender equality

Humanitarian crises

$400 million in life-saving humanitarian assistance for communities hit by natural disasters

$200 million in humanitarian assistance to support refugees and internally displaced people

Assist travellers

2,082,127 - record number of passports issued

11,880 Australians overseas provided with consular assistance

> 62,000 calls received by our Consular Emergency Centre

Connect people

13,774 New Colombo Plan students studied in the Indo-Pacific creating new people-to-people links in 37 countries across the region

4,031 new Australia Awards offered to individuals from over 60 developing countries

Promote Australia

11 visits for 66 influential journalists from 20 Indo-Pacific countries through our International Media Visits program, providing exposure to policies of strategic importance to Australia

3 million social media followers ↑23 %