In a blistering response to the 2018 federal budget, charity group World Vision slammed the Federal Government for "continuing Australia's darkest era of aid cuts". The organisation's policy and advocacy director, Susan Anderson, tweeted: "This year's budget is the fifth year in a row that the Australian Government has cut Australian aid." So, has the foreign aid budget been cut in each of the past five years? Ms Anderson's claim is correct. Across the five financial years from 2014-15 to 2018-19, the aid budget has been cut twice in nominal terms. And while data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade shows that nominal aid spending increased marginally in the other three budget years, these gains disappear after inflation is taken into account. This equates to a real cut in all five budget years. Experts told Fact Check that the Consumer Price Index was a reasonable way to measure inflation in the context of Australian aid spending. Based on this, from year to year, aid spending was cut in real terms by as little as 0.2 per cent and by as much as 17.7 per cent. According to ANU's Development Policy Centre, which publishes the aid figures in 2018 dollars, this equates to an $8 million cut in 2018-19 and a $953 million cut in 2015-16.
Verdict: Correct