WHAT WAS CLAIMED
The Australian federal government spends $1 trillion each year, including $90 billion on debt interest.
OUR VERDICT
False. The government spent $799 billion in 2024/25, including $37 billion on debt interest.
AAP FACTCHECK - A Facebook video falsely claims the Australian federal government spends more than $1 trillion dollars each year, including $90 billion on debt interest.
The figures significantly overestimate federal government spending.
Total spending was just under $800 billion in 2024/25, the most recent full financial year at the time the claim was made, while spending on debt interest was less than half the claimed amount.
The claim appears in a video that includes a graphic headed: "WHERE THE GOVERNMENT 'SPENDS' YOUR TAX MONEY".
According to the graphic, the government spends $220 billion on welfare, $90 billion on public sector pay, $100 billion on "Healthcare (Medicare)", $150 billion on "bureaucracy", $90 billion on debt interest, $55 billion on defence, $30 billion on "Infrastructure & overruns" and $5 billion on immigration.
A man in the video discusses the graphic, then claims the $740 billion total does not include all government spending.
"Believe it or not, this is actually an understatement," he says.
"There's about another $250 billion in spending that is not on this list.
"In fact, the Australian government spends over $1 trillion a year, and that's increasing at about seven per cent per annum."
AAP FactCheck contacted the video author for evidence to support the claim but did not hear back.
His claimed total exaggerates federal government spending and debt interest costs, while several other figures in the graphic are also inaccurate.
David Bond, an accounting expert at UNSW Business School, said it was not clear what figures were being referenced in the graphic, but "most commonly, when we're referring to government expenditure, it's referring to spending on expenses".
By that measure, the government spent "significantly less than $90 billion" on debt interest, Dr Bond said.
He directed AAP FactCheck to the government's 2024-2025 Commonwealth Consolidated Financial Statements, which include the most recent final audited figures for government spending at the time of writing.
The document showed total government spending was $798.6 billion in 2024-25 ("total expenses", p32), well short of the $1 trillion claim.
It also showed the government spent $37.1 billion on interest in 2024-25 ("interest expense", page 32), not $90 billion.
Dr Bond said it was important to note the spending included $193.8 billion that was transferred to state and territory governments (current and capital grant expenses, Note 3E, p73).
"If you exclude that, the expenditure was $604.8 billion," Dr Bond told AAP FactCheck.
The report also showed defence spending was $47.8 billion (p74), not $55 billion.
The graphic understates the amount spent on health and welfare.
In 2024-25, the government spent $132.2 billion on health (p74). However, Dr Bond noted only a small portion of this was spent on Medicare.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's 2024/25 annual report stated the Medicare Benefits Schedule cost $32.4 billion in 2024/25 (p88).
Likewise, the Consolidated Financial Statements show the government spent $285.5 billion on social security and welfare in 2024-25 (p74) - more than the $220 billion the graphic claimed was spent on "welfare".
Additionally, the 2025 budget showed the government spent $4.0 billion on immigration management in 2024/25 (Table 5.16.1, page 141).
"Public sector pay" is alleged to total $90 billion, but it is unclear which pay expenses and employee roles are included in that figure.
The federal government's 2024/25 audited accounts contain several different personnel-related totals, including $34.7 billion in "wages and salaries" (p32).
The accounts also list $85.5 billion in total employee and superannuation expenses (p69), a broader category that includes veterans' compensation, redundancy payments, superannuation expenses and superannuation interest costs.
It's not clear what spending would be included in the "infrastructure & overruns" or "government bureaucracy" categories included in the graphic.
Stephen Bartos, an economics professor at the University of Canberra, told AAP FactCheck that the 2025–26 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) was the most recent forecast of government spending when the video was posted.
The MYEFO showed total expenditure on interest was $39.2 billion in 2024/25 and forecast to be $42.6 billion in 2025/26 (Table 4.10, p96).
The report also showed total government spending was expected to be $809.2 billion in 2025/26 (Table 3.9, p77).
Professor Bartos said other government entities also raised debt, including Australia Post and the NBN, but even if those debts were included, the total debt interest would still not reach $90 billion.
The trillion-dollar figure may be a misreading of an ABS report.
An ABS release in April 2026 said total government spending reached $1 trillion in 2024/25. However, this included spending by states, territories, local governments and public universities.
Detailed figures showed that Commonwealth spending accounted for $745 billion of the $1 trillion figure (Table 1, column K).
The 2026 budget, released after the post was published, showed the government spent $38.3 billion on interest in 2025/26 (Table 7.10, p265).
Debt interest was expected to rise to $43.4 billion in 2026/27, then to $55.7 billion in 2029/30, according to 2026 budget forecasts.
The 2026 budget also showed that total government spending was expected to be $812 billion in 2025/26, then $833.3 billion in 2026/27 and $933.7 billion by 2029/30 (Table 10.1, p363).
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