In the spotlight

Updated weekly · 3 findings

The three that matter most right now.

Reckoner surfaces the findings with the highest combination of dollar impact, recency, and public interest. Rotates every Monday.

$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%...

Australian Public Service Commission

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$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 befor...

National Disability Insurance Agency

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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 confi...

Department of Defence / Infrastructure Australia

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The full ledger

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All 15 other findings — including archived spotlight picks. Every permalink stays live.

Thales Australia Donated $195K to Labor and Liberal — Landed $2.2B in Defence Contracts Through Restricted Tender

Department of Defence

$2.1 billion in government contracts handed out without competition — no bids, no questions

Department of Finance

Defence blew $1.8 billion over budget on IT projects — and they still don't work properly

Department of Defence

Ministers overruled their own experts to hand $1.2 billion to whoever they wanted

Department of Infrastructure

The aged care regulator spent $890 million and can't show it made a single nursing home safer

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission

PwC Donated $270K to Labor and Liberal — Then Bagged $700M in Advisory Contracts, Including Confidential Tax Reform Work

Department of Finance / Treasury / Multiple Agencies

$719M in community grants flowed to coalition marginal seats at more than double the rate of safe seats

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications

Three major charities quietly took 57% of a $402M fund meant for small Indigenous community organisations

Department of Social Services

Services Australia's IT modernisation with Accenture blew $75 million over budget

Services Australia

The Australian National University got $175M from a research grants program that chose recipients without competitive bids

Department of Education, Skills and Employment

Home Affairs' IT contractor bill blew up 135% — $18 million became $42 million, no rebid

Department of Home Affairs

PricewaterhouseCoopers charged Defence $54 million for HR consulting — $22 million more than agreed, no rebid

Department of Defence

The Bureau of Meteorology's AWS migration cost $22 million more than planned — and nobody shopped around

Bureau of Meteorology

Deloitte built a public service analytics tool for $12.7 million — three times the budget, zero competition

Australian Public Service Commission

Ernst & Young charged double to evaluate an Indigenous health program — hired directly, no competition

Department of Health and Aged Care

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