What I've found
Ranked by dollar impactDVA military compensation liability surged $59.7B in a single year — up 65%
ANAO's 2025 financial statement audit found DVA's military compensation provisions surged from $92.3B to $152.0B in FY2024-25 — a $59.7B increase representing a 65% jump in a singl...
NBN Co $27.5B cost blowout — 93% over original $29.5B estimate
The NBN Co's original construction cost estimate of $29.5B ultimately reached over $57B — a $27.5B blowout representing a 93% cost overrun on the largest infrastructure project in ...
11 of 14 Home Affairs SES officers skipped conflict of interest declarations on $23.8B contract portfolio
An ANAO audit found 11 of 14 Home Affairs SES officers responsible for major procurements did not make mandatory conflict of interest declarations, despite overseeing a combined po...
BAE Systems Donated $288K to Labor and Liberal — Landed $8.37B in Defence Contracts, Including a $1.89B Direct-Source Frigate Deal Referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission
AEC Annual Returns show BAE Systems Australia donated $288,000 to the Liberal Party and Labor Party between 2018–19 and 2021–22. AusTender records confirm BAE collected $8.37 billi...
$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...
Serco Donated $115K to Labor and Liberal — Collected $7.13B Running Immigration Detention for 15 Years, Amid Allegations of Violence, Neglect, and Self-Harm
AEC Annual Returns show Serco Australia donated $115,000 to the Liberal Party and Labor Party between 2018–19 and 2022–23. AusTender records confirm Serco collected $7.13 billion i...
Up to $6 billion stolen from disabled Australians every year — and the agency admits it had 'no real control' until 2024
The NDIS paid $46.3 billion in 2024-25. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission estimates up to 20% is misused — $6 to $9 billion annually. ANAO confirmed that before 2024 ...
Australia's biggest defence projects blew out by $5.5 billion — just from exchange rate movements
ANAO's 2024-25 Major Projects Report found $5,512.9 million in exchange-rate-driven budget variations across 21 projects. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alone accounts for $3.1 bill...
$5 billion in wrong pension payments — 3 years, every quarter a miss
Services Australia made $5 billion in incorrect age pension payments over 3 years to June 2024 — $3.67B overpaid, $1.33B underpaid. The agency missed its own 80% timeliness target ...
Australia spends $5 billion a year on Big Four consultants — and the government rejected every major reform to fix conflicts of interest
Federal government consulting contracts with Big Four increased 1,270% over a decade to $5 billion per year by 2023. PwC was caught sharing confidential Treasury tax policy with cl...
Boeing Donated $335K to Labor and Liberal — Collected $4.43B in Defence Contracts, Every Single One Through Direct Sourcing or Limited Tender
AEC Annual Returns show Boeing Defence Australia donated $335,000 to the Liberal Party and Labor Party between 2019–20 and 2021–22. AusTender records confirm Boeing collected $4.43...
$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...
$2.7 billion gap: Australia's navy ships suffering 'catastrophic failures'
HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide — Australia's two largest and most expensive warships — suffered complete power failures on humanitarian missions. ANAO found sustainment underfundi...
NBN Co went 3 years without reporting to shareholders — collected $2.4B in equity during blackout
ANAO found NBN Co failed to communicate with its shareholder ministers for three full years (September 2020 – September 2023) — the period during which it sought and received $2.4B...
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 ...
$2 billion in health grants handed out as 'captain's picks' — no applications, no merit, just ministerial discretion
The Community Health and Hospitals Program distributed $2 billion in health grants without a formal application process, breaching grant guidelines. Projects were chosen by ministe...
DEWR's $1.9B Workforce Australia — 40% of placements last under 13 weeks, no outcome baseline
ANAO found DEWR's procurement of $1.9B in employment services under Workforce Australia lacked competitive tension, with many regions having only one provider. DEWR has not establi...
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 ...
$1.5 billion in medication claims stuck unprocessed — while pharmacists wait and patients are delayed
Services Australia has $1.5 billion in uncertified Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme claims as of June 2024. The agency measures its own performance with metrics that count transferre...
A $1.2 billion no-bid munitions deal — and the defence official who handed it out was accepting champagne from the winner
Defence awarded Thales Australia a $1.2 billion sole-source contract for munitions supply without competitive tender. ANAO identified "important governance failures and probity gap...
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...
DTA: all 4 sampled procurements had wrong AusTender data; $1B IBM arrangement under AFP fraud investigation
ANAO found all four DTA procurement samples reviewed had incorrect AusTender reporting, with 112 late filings in a single year — the worst compliance rate of any agency sampled. Se...
Paladin Donated $70K to Labor and Liberal — A Company Registered to a Beach Shack Collected $948M in Sole-Source Manus Island Contracts Without Ever Facing Competition
AEC Annual Returns show Paladin Consulting donated $70,000 to the Liberal Party and Labor Party between 2018–19 and 2019–20. AusTender records confirm Paladin collected $948 millio...
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...
Deloitte Donated $270K to Labor and Liberal — Bagged $683M in Consulting Contracts Across 4 Agencies, Every One Through Direct Sourcing or Limited Tender
AEC Annual Returns show Deloitte Australia donated $270,000 to the Liberal Party and Labor Party between 2018–19 and 2022–23. AusTender records confirm Deloitte collected $683.2 mi...
$550M remote Indigenous housing program delivered only 19% of promised homes
Under a $550M National Partnership Agreement on Remote Housing, NIAA achieved only 19% of the targeted new home builds for remote Indigenous communities over the program period. Se...
$550 million spent renovating the War Memorial — without ministers even being told about the contracts
ANAO found the $550 million War Memorial redevelopment was conducted without adequate ministerial oversight, prior relationships with contractors were not disclosed, and contract s...
AGD delayed child sexual abuse survivor services for 5 years after Royal Commission
An ANAO audit found the Attorney-General's Department failed to deliver specialist services for survivors of child sexual abuse for five years after the Royal Commission into Insti...
$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 ...
ASIC "comprehensively failed" on ASX CHESS blockchain project — $250M written off under its watch
ASIC's own final report found the regulator failed to act on repeated red flags about ASX's governance failures during the seven-year CHESS blockchain replacement project. ASX ulti...
ATO CIO failed to declare Accenture conflict of interest; $136M contract awarded
ANAO found the ATO's then-CIO failed to declare his interest in Accenture for six months after taking the role, yet was not removed from procurement decisions during that period. A...
$129.6 million in political donations with zero paper trail — that's 31% of everything the major parties raised
In 2024-25, major parties reported $417.2 million in total receipts — but $129.6 million (31%) came from undisclosed "dark money" sources. Total donations rose 58% from 2022. The M...
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...
ATO IT consultant cost blowout: $19M contracted ballooned to $88M
A 2025 ANAO performance audit found the ATO's procurement of IT managed services ballooned from $19.06M to $88.11M — a $69M, 362% overrun — due to poor scope management and inadequ...
DFAT broke procurement rules — again — after ANAO caught them doing the same thing in a previous audit
ANAO found DFAT's Australian Passport Office requesting quotes from suppliers not on approved panels while those same suppliers were already working for DFAT — constituting illegal...
AEC handed Accenture $30M — no competition, no tender, for the system that regulates political donations
The Australian Electoral Commission appointed Accenture as its sole ICT delivery partner for the Funding and Disclosure reform package in a $30 million contract covering 2026-2028....
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...
NIAA handed $16.3M sole-source contracts to PwC Indigenous arm while PwC under investigation
Despite PwC being under active investigation for its tax advice scandal, NIAA awarded $16.3M in sole-source contracts to PwC's Indigenous Consulting subsidiary — including a $10.2M...
Your submarine billions funded McKinsey — without a single competing bid
The Australian Submarine Agency paid McKinsey $12.7 million for management advisory services without running a competitive tender. Australia has committed $368 billion over 30+ yea...
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 — ...
Mining companies gave $6M to politicians — then lobbied against climate policy. The donations worked.
Coal Australia ($5.15M to Australians for Prosperity) and the Minerals Council ($1M to the Liberal Party) in 2024-25 lobbied aggressively against federal climate and energy legisla...
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...