16 pieces
Wasteful Spending
Where the money goes: the spending ratchet and the debt it leaves, public money for activist causes, welfare rules nobody wants to examine, and the programs that grew fastest with least control.
New Wasteful SpendingDoes the taxpayer support men with several wives? What Centrelink actually paysNo husband is paid per wife, and there are no special rules for Muslims. But since a quiet 2018 change, a declared extra partner is usually paid as single, and no count is published.New Wasteful SpendingFunding the activist state: where public money backs left-wing causesThe Voice cost $411.3m, Victoria's treaty $326.7m. Climate finance, UNRWA, the EDO and advocacy grants, each sourced and tested. Real, but about 1 cent in every $100 of federal spending.Wasteful SpendingThe spending ratchet and the size of governmentFive pressures — NDIS, health, aged care, defence and interest — grow faster than the economy, without a productivity dividend to fund them.Wasteful SpendingThe structural deficit behind the temporary surplusesThe surpluses rested on commodity prices and near-full employment. Strip the luck out and a structural gap remains — and widens as terms of trade normalise.Wasteful SpendingThe interest billPublic debt interest is now the fastest-growing major line in the federal budget, and it buys nothing.Wasteful SpendingOff-budget funds and the accounting questionTens of billions committed through vehicles that sit outside the underlying cash balance — a growing shadow budget that flatters the headline number.Wasteful SpendingThe post-COVID budgets, read line by lineRead across the 2022–2025 budgets and spending settles at a permanently higher share of GDP. The anchor evidence for the fiscal thesis.Wasteful SpendingThe public service rebuildAPS headcount grew by roughly a quarter in three years. Consultant spending was discretionary; a wage-and-super bill is permanent.Wasteful SpendingThe NDIS and the fastest-growing line in the budgetOne of the fastest-growing major programs, heading toward one of the largest. Essential for participants — but its uncontrolled growth threatens its own future.Wasteful SpendingThe NDIS cuts started this week. What's being cut, and why.On 1 October 2026, NDIS social participation budgets were cut by 50%. The government says the scheme is unsustainable. Disability advocates warn of isolation. The evidence, sourced.Wasteful SpendingFuture Made in AustraliaA production-subsidy agenda aimed at industries the market is currently walking away from.Wasteful SpendingLabor states and the debt mountainVictoria carries the largest net-debt load in the country; the 2026 Commonwealth Games were cancelled over a blow-out. The state-level mirror of the federal thesis.Wasteful SpendingThe Greens in the balance of powerSenate leverage reshaped the HAFF and forced repeated concessions. An economic program that, where adopted, would deepen the supply-side crises this site documents.Wasteful SpendingChildcare: subsidy in, fees upA larger public contribution met a constrained supply. A share of the subsidy was absorbed into higher prices.Wasteful SpendingFee-Free TAFE and the completion questionEnrolments are an input. Completions in shortage occupations are the output - and they are reported far less often.VictoriaThe nation's largest state debtVictoria carries the heaviest net-debt load of any state, with interest now among its fastest-growing costs.
$313a fortnight more at the single Parenting Payment rate
28 Aug 2018the multiple-relationship rule changed, unannounced
Noneofficial counts of polygamous households on welfare
$411.3mfinal AEC cost of the 2023 Voice referendum
$326.7mVictorian treaty spending, 2020-21 to Oct 2025
58 of 400community batteries running, Jan 2026 (ANAO)
5fast-growing pressures
>GDPtheir growth rate
noproductivity offset
2surpluses, both temporary
commoditiesdid the work
deficitsreturn and widen
$1tngross debt passed, Aug-2026
~8.8%projected annual growth
$42.2bninterest expense, FY30
$10s bnoff-budget
5+major funds
hiddenfrom the bottom line
>26%payments/GDP (approx.)
higherthan pre-COVID base
permanentnot temporary
198,529APS headcount, Jun-2025
+24.5%growth since Jun-2022 (approx.)
+4,199ASL added, 2025-26 Budget
fastestgrowing program
8%growth target
>$50bntrajectory (approx.)
$37.8bnNDIS savings, 4 years
50%social participation cut
170,000fewer participants by 2030
$6.7bnhydrogen tax incentive cost
$2/kgrenewable hydrogen subsidy
$14bnGladstone project abandoned
#1Victoria net debt
cancelled2026 Games
blow-outsthe Big Build
balanceof power
HAFFheld then reshaped
furtherleft pressure
22.8%AU fee growth 2018-22 (OECD adj. 6.2%)
-11%out-of-pocket, centre-based day care
limitedevidence of profiteering — ACCC
814,000Fee-Free TAFE enrolments since 2023
~258,000completions to date (~32%)
4 yearsNCVER convention for reporting completions