A Liberal Senator says he is concerned the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) overseas service is in decline.

Queensland Liberal Russell Trood has questioned departmental officials about the impact of cuts to its overseas postings.

He says staff seem to have been withdrawn from parts of the world that the Government says it wants to focus on.

"The overall impression here is of a foreign service in decline," he said.

"You've got a foreign service which is taking people out of key positions overseas at a time when a Government has an expanding foreign agenda.

"In many cases they are in places of acute importance to Australia's interests overseas."

The department's deputy secretary, David Ritchie, says he is confident that the organisation has re-prioritised to cope with the cuts and still achieve the Government's goals.

"There were fairly substantial cuts in making those decisions - we try to pick people where there will be the least disruption to the achievement of those," he said.

"That doesn't mean there will be no disruption to the achievement of those (decisions) but we've tried to pick it up in other ways."

Source: ABC News