Australia's spending on foreign aid is at an eight-year low, with planned increases by 2020 still less than spending by the Rudd and Gillard governments more than a decade earlier.

Data released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade this month shows Australia's $3.82 billion official development assistance budget for 2016-17 is closest to spending levels in 2009-10, totalling $3.86 billion.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop meets with locals during a visit to bring Australian aid to Fiji after Tropical Cyclone Winston. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Commitments over the four-year forward estimates period will peak at $4.1 billion, meaning Australia will spend less on foreign aid in 2020 than it did in 2010-11, when the budget reached $4.3 billion.

Currently more than 90 per cent of Australia's foreign aid commitments go to countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including more than $558 million to Papua New Guinea, $365 million to Indonesia and $162 million to the Solomon Islands.