Midday News Bulletin 28 June 2025
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TRANSCRIPT
Donald Trump says he's terminating all trade discussions with Canada
US announces funding for Gaza aid operation amid UN criticism
Australia claims a resounding win against the West Indies.
US President Donald Trump says he's terminating all trade discussions with Canada in response to a tax on digital technology firms set to come into effect on Monday. He says the United States will let Canada know within the next week what tariffs will be imposed on Canadian goods. Mr Trump says Canada has acted foolishly by trying to tax U-S tech companies. "They put a tax on companies that were American companies that they shouldn't, a very severe tax. And yeah, I guess they could remove it, they will, but I don't really, I mean, it doesn't matter to me. We have all the cards, we have all of the cards. You know, we do a lot of business with Canada, but relatively little. They do most of their businesses with us. And when you have that circumstance, you treat people better. " The digital services tax will hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3 per cent levy on revenue from Canadian users. The U-S State Department says it has approved $30 million in funding for a controversial aid operation in Gaza which has been criticised by the United Nations. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over aid distribution across the strip using private security contractors after Israel partially lifted its months-long blockade in late May. Since then, shooting events around the foundation's aid sites have led to at least 410 deaths, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. On Friday, U-N chief Antonio Guterres says the UN has the experience to better deliver aid. "The problem of the distribution of humanitarian aid must be solved. There is no need to reinvent the wheel with dangerous schemes. We have the solution. A detailed plan grounded in the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. We have the supplies, we have the experience. Our plan is guided by what people need. It is built on the trust of communities, donors and member states. And it worked during the last ceasefire, so it must be allowed to work again." Israel's Military Advocate General has ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over allegations that Israeli forces deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians near Gaza aid sites. The United Nations says hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out. Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers who say they were told to fire at crowds to keep them back. The Israeli military denies this, saying it has not instructed soldiers to deliberately shoot at civilians. The Victorian Government is encouraging children to head outdoors and go fishing after the stocking the state's waterways with fish that are large enough to be legally caught. The government is promoting the activity as low-cost school holiday fun as it seeks to promote the state as the best place to fish in the country. Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos says the government has stocked 220 waterways across Victoria. "We are really proud of the investment, because meaningful. It's meaningful for many reasons. Time out away from screens and from the busyness of life, spend time with people you love, bring the kids, go and catch fish, if you want, cook it that night. It is such an easy and wonderful activity to do. " A fishing license is required in Victoria, except for people aged under 18, or over 70. A bowling masterclass from Josh Hazlewood has helped Australia claim a resounding 159-run victory over the West Indies on day three of the Test series opener in Bridgetown. After a hotly contested first two days, Australia dominated with Hazlewood taking 5-43 as the tourists bowled their hosts out for 141 in their second dig.
The Windies were thwarted by a collapse of 6-26 in pursuit of 301 for victory.
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Elsewhere, Australia's never-ending wealth-creation engine powers on, with home prices likely to show further growth in Cotality's home value index report on Tuesday. The housing analytics firm formerly known as CoreLogic has tracked a rebound in property values since the start of the year, following a brief late 2024 downturn. Median dwelling prices hit a record high in June, with the median home in Australia now worth more than $830,000. AMP chief economist Shane Oliver expects another 0.6 per cent increase in July, up from 0.5 per cent growth the month prior. Slower-than-expected inflation figures released last week bolstered the case for the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates again in July, which would further fuel housing demand and price down the track. That's bad news for Australians hoping to clamber onto the property ladder, who can at least be consoled that dwelling approvals are tipped to recover from two consecutive months of falls. A 4.9 per cent jump in housing consents is expected to be revealed by the ABS on Wednesday. New supply is desperately needed to meet growing demand, but the pipeline is still well short of the levels needed to meet the national housing accord target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029. To meet that figure, Australia would need to build 20,000 new homes a month and the industry is already behind. In April, only 14,633 new homes were approved. Meanwhile, appetite for risk among Wall Street investors is being fuelled by data solidifying expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Despite President Donald Trump terminating trade negotiations with Canada in response to its digital tax on technology companies, all three major US indexes posted weekly gains. The Dow Jones rose 432.43 points, or 1.00 per cent, to finish Friday at 43,819.27, the S&P 500 gained 32.05 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 6,173.07 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 105.55 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 20,273.46. 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Consumer sentiment was hit by global uncertainty stemming from Donald Trump's threatened trade war and although tensions are now easing, confidence remains muted. Elsewhere, Australia's never-ending wealth-creation engine powers on, with home prices likely to show further growth in Cotality's home value index report on Tuesday. The housing analytics firm formerly known as CoreLogic has tracked a rebound in property values since the start of the year, following a brief late 2024 downturn. Median dwelling prices hit a record high in June, with the median home in Australia now worth more than $830,000. AMP chief economist Shane Oliver expects another 0.6 per cent increase in July, up from 0.5 per cent growth the month prior. Slower-than-expected inflation figures released last week bolstered the case for the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates again in July, which would further fuel housing demand and price down the track. That's bad news for Australians hoping to clamber onto the property ladder, who can at least be consoled that dwelling approvals are tipped to recover from two consecutive months of falls. A 4.9 per cent jump in housing consents is expected to be revealed by the ABS on Wednesday. New supply is desperately needed to meet growing demand, but the pipeline is still well short of the levels needed to meet the national housing accord target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029. To meet that figure, Australia would need to build 20,000 new homes a month and the industry is already behind. In April, only 14,633 new homes were approved. Meanwhile, appetite for risk among Wall Street investors is being fuelled by data solidifying expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Despite President Donald Trump terminating trade negotiations with Canada in response to its digital tax on technology companies, all three major US indexes posted weekly gains. The Dow Jones rose 432.43 points, or 1.00 per cent, to finish Friday at 43,819.27, the S&P 500 gained 32.05 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 6,173.07 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 105.55 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 20,273.46. Australian share futures crept up 5 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 9,316. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 gave up modest morning gains on Friday to finish on the lows of the day, losing 36.6 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 8,514.2. The broader All Ordinaries fell 29.9 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 8,743.7. Retail sales figures are expected to bounce back slightly after unseasonably warm weather put Australian consumers off buying winter clothes. Following a 0.1 per cent fall in retail spending in April, ANZ Bank economist Aaron Luk expects to see a 0.2 per cent rise in May figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. Even accounting for the weather-impacted 2.5 per cent drop in clothing sales in April, the Australian consumer has experienced a subdued start to 2025, despite falling inflation and interest rates boosting disposable income. Consumer sentiment was hit by global uncertainty stemming from Donald Trump's threatened trade war and although tensions are now easing, confidence remains muted. Elsewhere, Australia's never-ending wealth-creation engine powers on, with home prices likely to show further growth in Cotality's home value index report on Tuesday. The housing analytics firm formerly known as CoreLogic has tracked a rebound in property values since the start of the year, following a brief late 2024 downturn. Median dwelling prices hit a record high in June, with the median home in Australia now worth more than $830,000. AMP chief economist Shane Oliver expects another 0.6 per cent increase in July, up from 0.5 per cent growth the month prior. Slower-than-expected inflation figures released last week bolstered the case for the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates again in July, which would further fuel housing demand and price down the track. That's bad news for Australians hoping to clamber onto the property ladder, who can at least be consoled that dwelling approvals are tipped to recover from two consecutive months of falls. A 4.9 per cent jump in housing consents is expected to be revealed by the ABS on Wednesday. New supply is desperately needed to meet growing demand, but the pipeline is still well short of the levels needed to meet the national housing accord target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029. To meet that figure, Australia would need to build 20,000 new homes a month and the industry is already behind. In April, only 14,633 new homes were approved. Meanwhile, appetite for risk among Wall Street investors is being fuelled by data solidifying expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Despite President Donald Trump terminating trade negotiations with Canada in response to its digital tax on technology companies, all three major US indexes posted weekly gains. The Dow Jones rose 432.43 points, or 1.00 per cent, to finish Friday at 43,819.27, the S&P 500 gained 32.05 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 6,173.07 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 105.55 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 20,273.46. Australian share futures crept up 5 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 9,316. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 gave up modest morning gains on Friday to finish on the lows of the day, losing 36.6 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 8,514.2. The broader All Ordinaries fell 29.9 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 8,743.7.
The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
Australian agencies count cost of US foreign aid axing
In the Papua New Guinea highlands, tribal violence is an unfortunate way of life and, increasingly, death. In February 2024, bystanders were among 49 people killed in a gun battle between clans in Wabag, the capital of the Enga province. That clash was the destructive climax of a spate of fierce inter-tribal battles in Enga, where hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced, fearing for their lives. The reasons behind the violence are complex, including land ownership, with displacement of tribes causing cascading issues around custodianship of country. The arrival of industry, including forestry and mining, can upset traditional community authority structures, and challenge chiefly systems. The single greatest impact behind the swollen death tolls is perhaps the arrival of modern weaponry which replaces traditional weapons with lethal firearms. The UN estimates there are 112 inter-group conflicts in Papua New Guinea, and recent massacres extend beyond Enga. In 2019, more than 20 died in Hela province after an initial attack, which killed six, led to a retaliation including the murder of pregnant women and children. It was in Hela and Morobe provinces that agency Conciliation Resources began a peace-building project, drawing from years of expertise and a scoping assessment of the likelihood of success. "It was to enhance the skills and capacities of the people working on these conflict challenges," Ciaran O'Toole, Melbourne-based regional director, tells AAP. "Working to enable specific communities, in particular those affected by violence, to design and develop their own peace-building work (and) provide ... small grants for them to conduct dialogue or provide livelihood for some of the young men engaged in violence. "It was very targeted on what we would call the drivers of the violence." That was, until a stop-work letter arrived early this year. "It was quite blunt. It was very quick. There wasn't any lead time to wind down. It was just 'stop work'," Mr O'Toole said. The peace-building project was one of thousands axed by the US President Donald Trump's executive order to pause and re-evaluate foreign aid in January. Alongside peace-building programs, multi-billion dollar health initiatives to treat HIV and malaria, food provision, and climate-mitigation projects funded by USAID were ended. Months later, it is estimated that roughly 90 per cent of USAID's $A53 billion annual spend has been cancelled, representing roughly a third of all foreign aid. Australian development agencies are among those counting the cost. In a survey of members, peak body Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) has revealed at least $A400 million worth of projects have been defunded by the United States. ACFID believes that is a lowball figure, given many NGOs are yet to see the full picture of cuts, and others were not able to complete the survey during the upheaval. "This means communities losing access to healthcare, girls losing access to education and families losing access to food programs," ACFID chief executive Matthew Maury said. The hardest-hit region for Australian agencies is the Pacific, with the loss of $A113 million worth of support, predominantly climate change resilience and disaster preparedness, health and gender projects. Other axed projects include education and nutrition projects in Timor-Leste, drought recovery in Fiji, climate-resilient food systems in Nauru, and sexual and reproductive health services right across the Pacific. Given the challenges and sensitivity that comes with securing funding from donor governments, not every agency is keen to speak on the record about their loss. Caritas Australia programs director Dan Skehan said Caritas partners in Fiji and Samoa were also hit by USAID cuts. "They were receiving USAID funding specifically for WASH, which is water, sanitation and hygiene work ... delivering water to much needed communities, be that schools, communities or in some instances health facilities," he tells AAP. In this instance, Caritas Australia - part of the world's second largest humanitarian grouping, second only to the Red Cross - was able to redirect support to these programs at a reduced scale. "(Where) something like vital water to community hasn't been delivered, we've made decisions to at least finalise the project activities," he said. The aid sector has also been plunged into chaos, and in many cases, retrenchment by the USAID cuts. Caritas has shed hundreds of jobs in places like Bangladesh, and a smaller number in the Pacific. "This is an enormous funding cut ... there's been an enormous amount of disruption in the sector," Mr Skehan said. "There would be large number of staff who have been serving communities of very skilled workers who no longer, unfortunately, have a job. "What's most important, and we've always got to hold at the centre, is it's the communities and the vulnerable people that we serve that are most impacted." It's not just the US which is cutting development assistance. In April, the UK cut foreign aid by 40 per cent - a move which shocked many given it came from a centre-left Labour government - while last month, New Zealand axed $A91m in climate-related assistance. Mr O'Toole said the huge US retreat on aid had "given permission to other governments to cut back on their aid budgets as well". "We're all feeling the hurt across all of this change and I think all aid organisations are feeling this pain," he said. The sector hopes Australia, which has made incremental increases under Anthony Albanese, will step up to fill the gap. There are some positive signs from Canberra, including a flexibility afforded to agencies to move funds earmarked for one purpose onto others in light of cuts. Mr Maury hopes future budgets will see aid rise not just in real terms but as a percentage of the budget. "Australia has a proud history of supporting development, particularly in the Pacific," Mr Maury said. "Yet as global needs rise, our aid budget has fallen to just 0.65 per cent of the Federal Budget ... restoring aid to one per cent would reaffirm our commitment and secure Australia's place at the forefront of development." In the Papua New Guinea highlands, tribal violence is an unfortunate way of life and, increasingly, death. In February 2024, bystanders were among 49 people killed in a gun battle between clans in Wabag, the capital of the Enga province. That clash was the destructive climax of a spate of fierce inter-tribal battles in Enga, where hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced, fearing for their lives. The reasons behind the violence are complex, including land ownership, with displacement of tribes causing cascading issues around custodianship of country. The arrival of industry, including forestry and mining, can upset traditional community authority structures, and challenge chiefly systems. The single greatest impact behind the swollen death tolls is perhaps the arrival of modern weaponry which replaces traditional weapons with lethal firearms. The UN estimates there are 112 inter-group conflicts in Papua New Guinea, and recent massacres extend beyond Enga. In 2019, more than 20 died in Hela province after an initial attack, which killed six, led to a retaliation including the murder of pregnant women and children. It was in Hela and Morobe provinces that agency Conciliation Resources began a peace-building project, drawing from years of expertise and a scoping assessment of the likelihood of success. "It was to enhance the skills and capacities of the people working on these conflict challenges," Ciaran O'Toole, Melbourne-based regional director, tells AAP. "Working to enable specific communities, in particular those affected by violence, to design and develop their own peace-building work (and) provide ... small grants for them to conduct dialogue or provide livelihood for some of the young men engaged in violence. "It was very targeted on what we would call the drivers of the violence." That was, until a stop-work letter arrived early this year. "It was quite blunt. It was very quick. There wasn't any lead time to wind down. It was just 'stop work'," Mr O'Toole said. The peace-building project was one of thousands axed by the US President Donald Trump's executive order to pause and re-evaluate foreign aid in January. Alongside peace-building programs, multi-billion dollar health initiatives to treat HIV and malaria, food provision, and climate-mitigation projects funded by USAID were ended. Months later, it is estimated that roughly 90 per cent of USAID's $A53 billion annual spend has been cancelled, representing roughly a third of all foreign aid. Australian development agencies are among those counting the cost. In a survey of members, peak body Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) has revealed at least $A400 million worth of projects have been defunded by the United States. ACFID believes that is a lowball figure, given many NGOs are yet to see the full picture of cuts, and others were not able to complete the survey during the upheaval. "This means communities losing access to healthcare, girls losing access to education and families losing access to food programs," ACFID chief executive Matthew Maury said. The hardest-hit region for Australian agencies is the Pacific, with the loss of $A113 million worth of support, predominantly climate change resilience and disaster preparedness, health and gender projects. Other axed projects include education and nutrition projects in Timor-Leste, drought recovery in Fiji, climate-resilient food systems in Nauru, and sexual and reproductive health services right across the Pacific. Given the challenges and sensitivity that comes with securing funding from donor governments, not every agency is keen to speak on the record about their loss. Caritas Australia programs director Dan Skehan said Caritas partners in Fiji and Samoa were also hit by USAID cuts. "They were receiving USAID funding specifically for WASH, which is water, sanitation and hygiene work ... delivering water to much needed communities, be that schools, communities or in some instances health facilities," he tells AAP. In this instance, Caritas Australia - part of the world's second largest humanitarian grouping, second only to the Red Cross - was able to redirect support to these programs at a reduced scale. "(Where) something like vital water to community hasn't been delivered, we've made decisions to at least finalise the project activities," he said. The aid sector has also been plunged into chaos, and in many cases, retrenchment by the USAID cuts. Caritas has shed hundreds of jobs in places like Bangladesh, and a smaller number in the Pacific. "This is an enormous funding cut ... there's been an enormous amount of disruption in the sector," Mr Skehan said. "There would be large number of staff who have been serving communities of very skilled workers who no longer, unfortunately, have a job. "What's most important, and we've always got to hold at the centre, is it's the communities and the vulnerable people that we serve that are most impacted." It's not just the US which is cutting development assistance. In April, the UK cut foreign aid by 40 per cent - a move which shocked many given it came from a centre-left Labour government - while last month, New Zealand axed $A91m in climate-related assistance. Mr O'Toole said the huge US retreat on aid had "given permission to other governments to cut back on their aid budgets as well". "We're all feeling the hurt across all of this change and I think all aid organisations are feeling this pain," he said. The sector hopes Australia, which has made incremental increases under Anthony Albanese, will step up to fill the gap. There are some positive signs from Canberra, including a flexibility afforded to agencies to move funds earmarked for one purpose onto others in light of cuts. Mr Maury hopes future budgets will see aid rise not just in real terms but as a percentage of the budget. "Australia has a proud history of supporting development, particularly in the Pacific," Mr Maury said. "Yet as global needs rise, our aid budget has fallen to just 0.65 per cent of the Federal Budget ... restoring aid to one per cent would reaffirm our commitment and secure Australia's place at the forefront of development." In the Papua New Guinea highlands, tribal violence is an unfortunate way of life and, increasingly, death. In February 2024, bystanders were among 49 people killed in a gun battle between clans in Wabag, the capital of the Enga province. That clash was the destructive climax of a spate of fierce inter-tribal battles in Enga, where hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced, fearing for their lives. The reasons behind the violence are complex, including land ownership, with displacement of tribes causing cascading issues around custodianship of country. The arrival of industry, including forestry and mining, can upset traditional community authority structures, and challenge chiefly systems. The single greatest impact behind the swollen death tolls is perhaps the arrival of modern weaponry which replaces traditional weapons with lethal firearms. The UN estimates there are 112 inter-group conflicts in Papua New Guinea, and recent massacres extend beyond Enga. In 2019, more than 20 died in Hela province after an initial attack, which killed six, led to a retaliation including the murder of pregnant women and children. It was in Hela and Morobe provinces that agency Conciliation Resources began a peace-building project, drawing from years of expertise and a scoping assessment of the likelihood of success. "It was to enhance the skills and capacities of the people working on these conflict challenges," Ciaran O'Toole, Melbourne-based regional director, tells AAP. "Working to enable specific communities, in particular those affected by violence, to design and develop their own peace-building work (and) provide ... small grants for them to conduct dialogue or provide livelihood for some of the young men engaged in violence. "It was very targeted on what we would call the drivers of the violence." That was, until a stop-work letter arrived early this year. "It was quite blunt. It was very quick. There wasn't any lead time to wind down. It was just 'stop work'," Mr O'Toole said. The peace-building project was one of thousands axed by the US President Donald Trump's executive order to pause and re-evaluate foreign aid in January. Alongside peace-building programs, multi-billion dollar health initiatives to treat HIV and malaria, food provision, and climate-mitigation projects funded by USAID were ended. Months later, it is estimated that roughly 90 per cent of USAID's $A53 billion annual spend has been cancelled, representing roughly a third of all foreign aid. Australian development agencies are among those counting the cost. In a survey of members, peak body Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) has revealed at least $A400 million worth of projects have been defunded by the United States. ACFID believes that is a lowball figure, given many NGOs are yet to see the full picture of cuts, and others were not able to complete the survey during the upheaval. "This means communities losing access to healthcare, girls losing access to education and families losing access to food programs," ACFID chief executive Matthew Maury said. The hardest-hit region for Australian agencies is the Pacific, with the loss of $A113 million worth of support, predominantly climate change resilience and disaster preparedness, health and gender projects. Other axed projects include education and nutrition projects in Timor-Leste, drought recovery in Fiji, climate-resilient food systems in Nauru, and sexual and reproductive health services right across the Pacific. Given the challenges and sensitivity that comes with securing funding from donor governments, not every agency is keen to speak on the record about their loss. Caritas Australia programs director Dan Skehan said Caritas partners in Fiji and Samoa were also hit by USAID cuts. "They were receiving USAID funding specifically for WASH, which is water, sanitation and hygiene work ... delivering water to much needed communities, be that schools, communities or in some instances health facilities," he tells AAP. In this instance, Caritas Australia - part of the world's second largest humanitarian grouping, second only to the Red Cross - was able to redirect support to these programs at a reduced scale. "(Where) something like vital water to community hasn't been delivered, we've made decisions to at least finalise the project activities," he said. The aid sector has also been plunged into chaos, and in many cases, retrenchment by the USAID cuts. Caritas has shed hundreds of jobs in places like Bangladesh, and a smaller number in the Pacific. "This is an enormous funding cut ... there's been an enormous amount of disruption in the sector," Mr Skehan said. "There would be large number of staff who have been serving communities of very skilled workers who no longer, unfortunately, have a job. "What's most important, and we've always got to hold at the centre, is it's the communities and the vulnerable people that we serve that are most impacted." It's not just the US which is cutting development assistance. In April, the UK cut foreign aid by 40 per cent - a move which shocked many given it came from a centre-left Labour government - while last month, New Zealand axed $A91m in climate-related assistance. Mr O'Toole said the huge US retreat on aid had "given permission to other governments to cut back on their aid budgets as well". "We're all feeling the hurt across all of this change and I think all aid organisations are feeling this pain," he said. The sector hopes Australia, which has made incremental increases under Anthony Albanese, will step up to fill the gap. There are some positive signs from Canberra, including a flexibility afforded to agencies to move funds earmarked for one purpose onto others in light of cuts. Mr Maury hopes future budgets will see aid rise not just in real terms but as a percentage of the budget. "Australia has a proud history of supporting development, particularly in the Pacific," Mr Maury said. "Yet as global needs rise, our aid budget has fallen to just 0.65 per cent of the Federal Budget ... restoring aid to one per cent would reaffirm our commitment and secure Australia's place at the forefront of development." In the Papua New Guinea highlands, tribal violence is an unfortunate way of life and, increasingly, death. In February 2024, bystanders were among 49 people killed in a gun battle between clans in Wabag, the capital of the Enga province. That clash was the destructive climax of a spate of fierce inter-tribal battles in Enga, where hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced, fearing for their lives. The reasons behind the violence are complex, including land ownership, with displacement of tribes causing cascading issues around custodianship of country. The arrival of industry, including forestry and mining, can upset traditional community authority structures, and challenge chiefly systems. The single greatest impact behind the swollen death tolls is perhaps the arrival of modern weaponry which replaces traditional weapons with lethal firearms. The UN estimates there are 112 inter-group conflicts in Papua New Guinea, and recent massacres extend beyond Enga. In 2019, more than 20 died in Hela province after an initial attack, which killed six, led to a retaliation including the murder of pregnant women and children. It was in Hela and Morobe provinces that agency Conciliation Resources began a peace-building project, drawing from years of expertise and a scoping assessment of the likelihood of success. "It was to enhance the skills and capacities of the people working on these conflict challenges," Ciaran O'Toole, Melbourne-based regional director, tells AAP. "Working to enable specific communities, in particular those affected by violence, to design and develop their own peace-building work (and) provide ... small grants for them to conduct dialogue or provide livelihood for some of the young men engaged in violence. "It was very targeted on what we would call the drivers of the violence." That was, until a stop-work letter arrived early this year. "It was quite blunt. It was very quick. There wasn't any lead time to wind down. It was just 'stop work'," Mr O'Toole said. The peace-building project was one of thousands axed by the US President Donald Trump's executive order to pause and re-evaluate foreign aid in January. Alongside peace-building programs, multi-billion dollar health initiatives to treat HIV and malaria, food provision, and climate-mitigation projects funded by USAID were ended. Months later, it is estimated that roughly 90 per cent of USAID's $A53 billion annual spend has been cancelled, representing roughly a third of all foreign aid. Australian development agencies are among those counting the cost. In a survey of members, peak body Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) has revealed at least $A400 million worth of projects have been defunded by the United States. ACFID believes that is a lowball figure, given many NGOs are yet to see the full picture of cuts, and others were not able to complete the survey during the upheaval. "This means communities losing access to healthcare, girls losing access to education and families losing access to food programs," ACFID chief executive Matthew Maury said. The hardest-hit region for Australian agencies is the Pacific, with the loss of $A113 million worth of support, predominantly climate change resilience and disaster preparedness, health and gender projects. Other axed projects include education and nutrition projects in Timor-Leste, drought recovery in Fiji, climate-resilient food systems in Nauru, and sexual and reproductive health services right across the Pacific. Given the challenges and sensitivity that comes with securing funding from donor governments, not every agency is keen to speak on the record about their loss. Caritas Australia programs director Dan Skehan said Caritas partners in Fiji and Samoa were also hit by USAID cuts. "They were receiving USAID funding specifically for WASH, which is water, sanitation and hygiene work ... delivering water to much needed communities, be that schools, communities or in some instances health facilities," he tells AAP. In this instance, Caritas Australia - part of the world's second largest humanitarian grouping, second only to the Red Cross - was able to redirect support to these programs at a reduced scale. "(Where) something like vital water to community hasn't been delivered, we've made decisions to at least finalise the project activities," he said. The aid sector has also been plunged into chaos, and in many cases, retrenchment by the USAID cuts. Caritas has shed hundreds of jobs in places like Bangladesh, and a smaller number in the Pacific. "This is an enormous funding cut ... there's been an enormous amount of disruption in the sector," Mr Skehan said. "There would be large number of staff who have been serving communities of very skilled workers who no longer, unfortunately, have a job. "What's most important, and we've always got to hold at the centre, is it's the communities and the vulnerable people that we serve that are most impacted." It's not just the US which is cutting development assistance. In April, the UK cut foreign aid by 40 per cent - a move which shocked many given it came from a centre-left Labour government - while last month, New Zealand axed $A91m in climate-related assistance. Mr O'Toole said the huge US retreat on aid had "given permission to other governments to cut back on their aid budgets as well". "We're all feeling the hurt across all of this change and I think all aid organisations are feeling this pain," he said. The sector hopes Australia, which has made incremental increases under Anthony Albanese, will step up to fill the gap. There are some positive signs from Canberra, including a flexibility afforded to agencies to move funds earmarked for one purpose onto others in light of cuts. Mr Maury hopes future budgets will see aid rise not just in real terms but as a percentage of the budget. "Australia has a proud history of supporting development, particularly in the Pacific," Mr Maury said. "Yet as global needs rise, our aid budget has fallen to just 0.65 per cent of the Federal Budget ... restoring aid to one per cent would reaffirm our commitment and secure Australia's place at the forefront of development."
