Advocates welcome Labor aid funding boost

Labor has pledged to reverse $224 million in cuts to the foreign aid budget if elected.

This year's federal budget gutted Australia's foreign aid budget to an all-time low of 22 cents for every $100 of national income in the 2016-17 financial year, bringing official aid to $3.8 billion.

It came after $1 billion was stripped away in the 2014 budget.

"We will stop the clock on aid cuts. We will ensure there are no cuts next financial year to the aid budget," Labor's foreign affairs spokesperson Tanya Plibersek told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

Labor will also commit $450 million over three years to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Ms Plibersek said it is in Australia's interest to be a "good global citizen", with Malaysia and Thailand, which are now major trading partners, examples of countries that were significant recipients of Australian aid.

The aid boost will be funded in part by Labor's promise not to proceed with the government's company tax cuts, which would add an extra $48 billion to a budget $37.1 billion in deficit.

Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision, one of several major aid organisations including Oxfam and Caritas Australia to welcome the announcement, said the $224 million represents just two weeks of the corporate tax cuts.

"I don't know any businessman who would actually say for the sake of people who are desperate, `I demand those two weeks of tax cuts," Mr Costello told reporters.

"We've spent $50 billion on submarines. This is the cost of a periscope."