Terrence Miao - 2012-03-21 18:06:26+1100 - Updated: 2012-03-21 18:06:26+1100

Originally shared by David MartinCan anyone help explain the Australian Federal Government budget? Does anyone know of a simple breakdown of expenditure by department and portfolio? The total annual expenditure appears to be about $370b. In the budget papers is a breakdown by function and I've made a nice little pie chart from it, but where's the Australian Aid expenditure for example? The Bureau of Meteorology has about a $333m budget, but where is that in this functional split - under "energy" or "General government services"? Defence has a reported budget of about $21b but does that include "special accounts", and why doesn't it match the approximately $55b in the Agency Resourcing section of the budget documents? Accrual accounting issues perhaps? I need help. http://www.budget.gov.au/