Archive
One investigation at a time. Reverse chronological. The current article is at the top.
03 May 2026
Australian governments will direct $16.3 billion to fossil fuel companies in FY2025-26. The largest single line is the Fuel Tax Credit. The Australian government does not classify it as a subsidy.
The Australia Institute puts total federal and state fossil fuel subsidies at $16.3 billion for 2025-26, growing 9.4% year-on-year, faster than the NDIS. The single largest item is $10.8 billion in Fuel Tax Credits. The OECD, the IEA, and the IISD all classify the rebate as a fossil fuel subsidy. Treasury classifies it as a tax design feature. Mining takes 47% of the payouts and coal mining alone takes more than the entire agricultural sector.
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30 Apr 2026
Western Australia is the only state that charges public schools to log a maintenance request. Programmed Facility Management states it has held the contract since 1998.
Every other Australian state logs school maintenance for free through a government-run portal. WA pays Programmed Facility Management approximately $60 per request and approximately $8.5 million per year, per The West Australian's reporting. WA schools see less of the resulting audit trail than schools in any other state. The current Maintenance Services Arrangement, awarded in 2016, has continued through extension options rather than a fresh competitive retender.
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28 Apr 2026
Negative gearing and the 50% CGT discount cost the federal budget $12.3 billion last year in property-specific terms. The settings are working as written.
The Parliamentary Budget Office's July 2024 costing puts the combined property-specific revenue forgone via negative gearing ($6.9B) and the 50% CGT discount on residential property ($5.4B) at $12.3 billion in 2024-25, rising to approximately $22 billion per year by 2034-35. Independent modelling on the proposed reform exists. The case against reform is funded by the people the reform would touch.
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17 Apr 2026
Australia's LNG operators have accumulated PRRT deduction credits in excess of $238 billion. The PRRT cannot bite.
The ATO put the figure on the public record in its 2017 submission to the Senate Economics References Committee, under Commissioner Chris Jordan. The pool has grown since. No LNG project has paid PRRT in 39 years. The 25% export levy is the only instrument that touches the cashflow before the deduction stack consumes it.
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