James Sexton

FOR THE FIRST TIME, AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS TOOK IN MORE THAN $1 TRILLION IN A YEAR. THEY STILL SPENT MORE THAN THEY COLLECTED. We keep hearing there isn't enough money. So I went to the Bureau of Statistics' own tables for 2024-25, every level of government: federal, state and council. The tax. $839.0 billion. That's 30.2% of the whole economy, the highest share since 2007-08. Federal took $675.2 billion, the states $140.7 billion and councils $24.6 billion. Per person. The Bureau puts it at $30,633 in tax for every man, woman and child in the country. About $589 a week. Where it comes from. Personal income tax $316.2 billion, plus $25.7 billion in Medicare levy. Company tax $143.7 billion. GST $94.8 billion. Stamp duty on homes $34.4 billion. Payroll taxes $41.7 billion. Council rates $25.1 billion. Gambling taxes $10.0 billion. On top of tax. Another $183.4 billion from fees and charges, royalties, interest, dividends and other revenue. Total: $1,022.4 billion. The Bureau says it's the first time revenue has passed a trillion dollars. And they still came up short. Spending was $1,030.5 billion. Interest costs alone were $47.4 billion, nearly double ten years ago. Ten years ago the tax take was $463.7 billion. It's up 81%. Same standard. That decade covers Coalition and Labor governments in Canberra and both sides in every state. Nobody gets to blame the other lot for this. In fairness, those are dollar figures, not adjusted for inflation, the population has grown, and part of the tax is paid by companies, not households. Spending grew a little slower than revenue over the decade. But governments have never taken in more of your money. When they say there isn't enough, the problem isn't how much they collect. It's what they do with it. Same standard, every side. Cold Hard Facts. Corrected when wrong. No misinformation. What's your thoughts…? Peter Lyndon-James 🇦🇺 Sources: ABS, Taxation Revenue, Australia, 2024-25, released 21 Apr 2026, Tables 1 and 10; ABS, Government Finance Statistics, Annual, 2024-25, released 21 Apr 2026, Table 939 (Table 1, operating statement, all levels of government); ABS, Insights into Government Finance Statistics, Annual, 2024-25; ABS taxation data via The Nightly, 21 Apr 2026. Ten-year changes and weekly figure: author's calculation.