Penny Wong says it is impossible for Labor to entirely reverse Australia’s foreign policy cuts, accusing the government of having chosen cheap domestic political point scoring, cheered on by Pauline Hanson, at the expense of international aid.

In a speech circulated ahead of its delivery at the University of Queensland, the shadow foreign minister said it would be impossible for Labor to replace the $11bn cut from Australia’s aid budget since the Coalition came to power in 2013 but has vowed to increase development assistance as a percentage of national income and commit funds to Pacific programs.

Wong says the cuts “have not only had a very real impact to the people who benefit from investments in areas like health and education”, they have “damaged Australia’s reputation as a reliable partner in the region and lessened Australia’s influence precisely at the same time our national interest compels us to engage more deeply”.

“This government’s willingness to cut aid to this extent means that repairing Australia’s international development program is beyond our collective reach in the short term,” Wong will tell the UQ annual lecture in political science and international studies.

“Labor has consistently called for a return to a bipartisan approach to Australia’s international development program, an approach that has broken down as a result of the Morrison government’s actions.

“Half a century of bipartisanship has been cast aside. At a time when nationalism and populism is again on the rise, parties of government need to come together to demonstrate investment in international development does not come at the expense of domestic prosperity. Rather, it contributes to it.

“But those calls have been ignored in a time of ultra-partisanship, when the legitimate concerns of Australians struggling with low wage growth and cuts to services can be irresponsibly exploited to undermine the importance of Australia’s international development program.”

The result, Wong will say, is not just a fiscal challenge but a political one.

“Pauline Hanson, for example, continues to call for the entire, and much diminished, development assistance budget to be cut,” Wong says.

“She says that Australia is ‘shamefully wasting billions on overseas handouts to corrupt governments and unaccountable NGOs’. It is a call sadly echoed by at least some members of the Liberal National party. All of us who believe in a strong and generous Australia must push back and articulate why Australia’s international development programs matter; to the lives of those in our region, to our influence in our region, to our own national interest.

“After six years of the damage done to Australia’s international development program by the current government, it will require all of us to work together to not only address the policy challenges but the political challenges.”

Wong will also speak of the importance of “better coordination of Australia’s engagement across government, NGOs, academia and the private sector”, saying “aid is one part of Australia’s international engagement, which includes diplomacy, trade, labour mobility and private-sector investment”.

“Recognising this requires a change in mindset in both the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the development sector,” she will say.

Building on the federal conference directive to increase official development assistance as a percentage of gross national income every year, Wong said a Shorten Labor government would also look at the nation’s public service capability to deliver it.

In line with Labor’s commitment to refocus aid on the Pacific, Wong will announce $32m for the Pacific avoidable blindness and vision loss fund, partnering with organisations such as the Fred Hollows Foundation to clear a backlog of cataract patients, and train up to 600 health workers across the region.

Wong says Labor will also increase the annual base grant funding for fully accredited NGOs that are part of the Australian NGO Cooperation Program, budgeted at $32m over the forward estimates.

Labor has committed to working with the Papua New Guinean government “to examine whether our aid dollar is having the best impact possible”, with $550m invested in PNG each year.

The opposition also plans on appointing a global human rights ambassador, better address human rights abuses by Australian businesses, as well as “build the capacity of trade unions abroad to ensure people have access to be fair and decent and rights at work are better protected”.