"This has been kind of an easy grab by the government on the backs of some of the world's poorest people," Oxfam CEO Helen Szoke told SBS.
Aid organisations said last year Australia's foreign aid dollars helped vaccinate three million children around the world, sent one million children to school, and helped more than two million people get access to clean water.
They said they were concerned that kind of global impact will come to an end.
"The world's poor are now carrying the great bulk of the budget reductions," Save The Children CEO Paul Ronalds told SBS.
International aid organisations also warned the budget cuts would damage Australia's image, globally.
But trying to drum up support from Australians who are experiencing their own budget pain is a tough sell.
"Every dollar that Australia spends, every initiative that Australia takes for a more peaceful settled world where people aren't living in poverty, is a dollar that actually brings some benefits to us as a country," Ms Szoke said.
One of the few winners is Papua New Guinea, which will receive an increase in aid in exchange for hosting the Manus Island immigration processing centre.
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