Australian Aid

Australia’s development program, DFAT

Agency overview
Formed	1 December 1973; 50 years ago (1973-12-01)
Preceding agency	AusAID
Jurisdiction	Australian Government
Headquarters	Canberra, ACT, Australia
Employees	1,652 (April 2013)[1]
Ministers responsible	Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Pat Conroy, Minister for International Development and the Pacific
Agency executive	Ewan McDonald, Head of the Office of the Pacific (OTP)
Parent department	Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Website	dfat.gov.au/development/australias-development-program

Australian Aid is the brand name used to identify projects in developing countries supported by the Australian Government. As of 2014 the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has been responsible for Australia's official development assistance (foreign aid) to developing countries.

The Australian Development Assistance Agency (ADAA) was founded in 1974 under the Whitlam government, renamed the Australian Development Assistance Bureau (ADAB) in 1976, then the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) in 1987, before becoming the Australian Agency for International Development, known as AusAID, in 1995. It was merged into DFAT without prior consultation by the Abbott government in 2014, with aid slashed to most regions apart from the Pacific region.