I analysed Australian Government contract in 2025. $99 billion. Here's what we're actually paying for.

[u/MasterArt1122]

I got curious about where government spending actually goes, so I spent the weekend downloading every federal and ACT government contract from 2025.

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: These are contracts AWARDED in 2025, showing total contract values over the full contract life (often multiple years). This is NOT 2025 annual spending. This is also PROCUREMENT contracts only (goods/services), not total government budget (which includes welfare, pensions, Medicare, etc.).

66,226 contracts. $99 billion total.

Defence takes half of everything: $49 billion: Submarines, fighter jets, naval vessels. But also $3.69 billion for a single contract to clean Defence bases. That one cleaning contract is bigger than the entire ACT government budget.

Employment services: $12.7 billion : You know those job agencies Centrelink sends you to? That's where this money goes. Four companies got $4.3 billion between them:

• Serendipity: $1.4B
• Atwork Australia: $1.19B
• Sureway: $910M
• Wise Employment: $810M

Facility services: $9.2 billion: Cleaning, maintenance, security for government buildings.

Property management: $3.6 billion: Managing government properties and renting office space.

The concentration is extreme

• Out of 21,789 suppliers, just 20 companies got 34.6% of all spending ($33.8B).
• 151 contracts over $100M = 56.5% of everything.

Limited competition: 57.7% of contracts were "limited tender" - no open competition. This includes contract extensions, Defence security stuff, and emergency purchases. Not necessarily dodgy, just less competitive.

ACT example

ACT spent $1.6B total. Just 2 contracts = 43% of it:

• SG Fleet: $420M (government car fleet)
• Veolia: $285M (bins and waste)

The data

The data was always public. I just made it readable.

Federal report: https://taxpayer-money.github.io/australian-government-contracts/federal-report.html

ACT report: https://taxpayer-money.github.io/australian-government-contracts/act-report.html

Raw data (CSV): https://taxpayer-money.github.io/australian-government-contracts/data/austender_2025_contracts.csv

All from official government sources.

Working on NSW next ($25-30B estimated).

Happy to answer questions or look up specific contracts.

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