Top Findings
Ranked by dollar impact$7.8 billion of your taxes paid to consultants who left nothing behind
The government spent $21.4 billion on consultants and contractors in a single year — and $7.8 billion of it built no lasting capability. 15 firms gobbled up 62% of the consulting b...
$3.3 billion in dodgy NDIS claims slipped through because nobody was watching
The NDIS paid out against an estimated $3.4 billion in suspicious claims — and caught just $142 million of it. One in eight high-risk payments got checked before the money left. Th...
CIMIC Donated $540K to Labor, Liberal and Nationals — Collected $3.1B in Government Construction, 41% Without Open Tender
AEC Annual Returns show CIMIC Group (parent of CPB Contractors) donated $539,800 to all three major parties between 2018–19 and 2022–23. AusTender records confirm CIMIC/CPB collect...
Thales Australia Donated $195K to Labor and Liberal — Landed $2.2B in Defence Contracts Through Restricted Tender
AEC Annual Returns show Thales Australia donated $195,000 to the Labor Party and the Liberal Party between 2019–20 and 2021–22. AusTender records confirm Thales collected $2.19 bil...
$2.1 billion in government contracts handed out without competition — no bids, no questions
Nearly half of all contracts over $200,000 bypassed open competition. No bids invited, no price checks, no documented justification in 38% of cases. $2.1 billion in taxpayer money ...
Defence blew $1.8 billion over budget on IT projects — and they still don't work properly
Defence's 12 biggest IT contracts all went over budget, by an average of 47%. The total blowout: $1.8 billion above what was approved. 11 of 12 contracts had no proper performance ...
Ministers overruled their own experts to hand $1.2 billion to whoever they wanted
Ministers intervened to change grant outcomes in nearly a quarter of assessed applications — overriding the recommendations of the public servants they employ. $1.2 billion in gran...
The aged care regulator spent $890 million and can't show it made a single nursing home safer
$890 million a year funds the aged care regulator. In return: just 23% of safety violations led to enforcement. Serious problems sat unresolved for 14 months on average. Providers ...
PwC Donated $270K to Labor and Liberal — Then Bagged $700M in Advisory Contracts, Including Confidential Tax Reform Work
AEC Annual Returns show PwC Australia donated $270,300 to the two major parties between 2018–19 and 2022–23. AusTender records confirm PwC received $697.4 million in federal consul...
$719M in community grants flowed to coalition marginal seats at more than double the rate of safe seats
The Community Development Grants Programme handed out $719 million in taxpayer money between 2017 and 2022. 84% of the total — more than $604M — went to 24 coalition-held marginal ...
Three major charities quietly took 57% of a $402M fund meant for small Indigenous community organisations
The Indigenous Advancement Strategy handed out $402 million to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. But 57% of that money — $230M — went to just three large c...
Services Australia's IT modernisation with Accenture blew $75 million over budget
Services Australia handed Accenture a no-bid IT contract to modernise its systems. Budget: $112 million. Final bill: $187.5 million. A $75 million blowout — 67% over what was appro...
The Australian National University got $175M from a research grants program that chose recipients without competitive bids
The National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) distributed $646 million to universities and research institutions since 2017. It works by direct allocation — n...
Home Affairs' IT contractor bill blew up 135% — $18 million became $42 million, no rebid
A temporary IT staffing contract at Home Affairs was budgeted at $18 million. The final cost: $42.3 million. That's 135% over budget, awarded to Infosys BPO through limited tender ...
PricewaterhouseCoopers charged Defence $54 million for HR consulting — $22 million more than agreed, no rebid
Defence handed PricewaterhouseCoopers a HR consulting contract worth $54.2 million — $22 million above the original estimate. Awarded through limited tender. No competitive process...
The Bureau of Meteorology's AWS migration cost $22 million more than planned — and nobody shopped around
The Bureau of Meteorology migrated to Amazon Web Services through limited tender — no competitive bids, no price comparison. Budget: $45 million. Final cost: $67 million. A $22 mil...
Deloitte built a public service analytics tool for $12.7 million — three times the budget, zero competition
The Australian Public Service Commission directly hired Deloitte to build a workforce analytics platform — no competitive tender. Budget: $4.8 million. Final cost: $12.7 million — ...
Ernst & Young charged double to evaluate an Indigenous health program — hired directly, no competition
The Health Department directly sourced Ernst & Young to evaluate an Indigenous health program. No competitive bid. The contract grew from $3.5 million to $8.2 million — a 134% blow...