Attachments
Last night, the Federal Government delivered its 2025-26 Budget. As we do every year, we’ve analysed the Budget to determine what it means for refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia.
While there were few new announcements related to refugee policies and programs, there is still much to glean from the Budget allocations.
Our key takeaways:
- While we welcome additional funding to address social cohesion and critical support for multicultural communities, this allocation pales in comparison to Government spending on border enforcement, offshore processing and onshore detention and compliance
- Spending on offshore processing has blown out to $13.35 billion. This amount does not include costs associated with forcing people released from immigration detention to Nauru
- Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program will remain at 20,000 places, the level set in 2023-24, missing an opportunity for Australia to show leadership by increasing our Program during a time of unprecedented global need
- Funding will be extended for the successful refugee employment program Economic Pathways to Refugee Integration
- While overseas aid and development spending will increase by $136 million, the total aid spending of $5.1 billion in 2025-26 will represent just 0.65% of the Australian Government’s total budget