It was founded in 1974 under the Whitlam Labor government as the Australian Development Assistance Agency (ADAA) to fulfil a role that had previously been the responsibility of several departments.

[4] It was renamed the Australian Development Assistance Bureau (ADAB) and brought under the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio in 1976 under the Fraser Liberal government.

[2] Soon after coming to power in September 2013, the Abbott government announced the integration of AusAID with DFAT, which was effected in November 2013.

The aid program would now provide a sharper focus on investing in drivers of economic growth, including trade, infrastructure; education and health; and empowering women and girls to create new jobs and opportunities that lift people out of poverty.

[6] Ewen McDonald is the inaugural Head of the Office of the Pacific (OTP),[7] as one of six groups reporting to secretary Frances Adamson.

[9] Cuts have not been limited to aid levels either; in mid-1996, the Howard government slashed the agency's running costs budget by 24% amidst a round of cost-cutting measures.

[citation needed] In 2005 John Howard committed Australia to double Australian aid to about $4 billion a year by 2010.

The agency was considerably more liberal with construction contracts, allowing bidding from any company worldwide, though this has the effect of shutting out many potential bidders from recipient countries.

Since the White Paper in 2006, all AusAID procurement was untied (i.e. open to international firms) except for the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development (AIPRD).

[10] In July 2010, under the Labor government, AusAID became an executive agency, separate from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Treasurer Joe Hockey said that savings of $3.7 billion in the foreign aid program over the next four years would offset new commitments in defence and national security.

[12] It operated programs in five separate regions: Papua New Guinea, South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), East Asia (Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam), the Pacific (the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) and the Middle East (Afghanistan and Iraq).