An independent look at Australian federal spending · Prototype · 3 Nov 2026
Your taxes. Their spending. The public's business.

Big budget.
Where are the receipts?

The Commonwealth spent about $822.1 billion over the 12 months to September 2026. That's a lot of money to explain with a press release. Let's see where it actually went — and what you'd do differently.

Build your own budget →Show me the receipts ↗
Why this exists

Public money deserves public scrutiny.

Most Australians don't have time to read hundreds of pages of federal budget documents. This website translates the figures into plain English, opens up the categories, and gives you the numbers to question government priorities.

It's built to be curious, sometimes cheeky and always clear about what the evidence actually shows. A grant announced isn't the same as cash spent; a controversial program isn't automatically waste.

Explore the website

Choose your rabbit hole.

Each section lives on its own page. No more scrolling past three encyclopaedias to find a slider.

01 / THE MAIN EVENT

Your budget. Your call.

Fund, reduce, remove or increase spending. Start with the big categories or dive into welfare subcategories.

Open the budget builder → 02 / THROUGH THE YEARS

Compare the governments.

Explore plans to compare Albanese-era spending with Morrison, Rudd, Gillard, Howard, Hawke and Whitlam using comparable shares.

View historical comparisons → 03 / SHOW US THE RECEIPTS

The spending files.

Follow grants, contracts and audit-flagged decisions. The eyebrow-raising bits get documentation, not just outrage.

Open the spending files → 04 / NUMBERS MADE HUMAN

How much is a billion?

Convert government spending into flat whites, iPhones, and a billionaire's estimated net worth.

Try the cost decoder → 05 / THE IMPORTANT BIT

Check our maths.

Original government records, definitions, data limitations and where our estimates come from.

See sources & methodology →
Our rule: official expenditure, estimates, announced funding and proposed cuts must be labelled differently. The aim is to make government spending understandable — not to make the numbers say something they don't.