- Unless indicated, all figures presented in this article are original current prices and all Australia general government.
- All Australia general government includes the Commonwealth, state, territory, local general governments, and public universities.
- Annual data for Government Finance Statistics includes expenses by purpose and are featured in this article.
Insights into Government Finance Statistics, Annual, 2024-25
Observations and analysis of the 2024-25 annual Government Finance Statistics data
Released
21/04/2026
Released
21/04/2026 11:30am AEST
Net operating balance
Net operating balance:
- is a summary measure that reflects the ongoing sustainability of government operations
- is derived by transactions in revenues less transactions in expenses
- is equal to the change in net worth due to transactions.
Australia’s net operating balance was -$8.2 billion in 2024-25, down $26.6 billion from the previous year. In 2024-25 all Australia general government revenue and expenses series both reached a trillion dollars for the first time. Revenue rose 4.5% (up $44.2 billion) and expenses rose 7.4% (up $70.8 billion).
Taxation revenue was the largest contributor to the rise in total revenue, driven by strength in income tax paid by superannuation funds, GST, personal income tax and stamp duties on conveyances. Partially offsetting these results, were falls in royalty income, fines and customs duties on imports.
- Taxation revenue increased 4.7% (up $37.4 billion), accounting for 84.7% of the growth in total revenue.
The largest contributors to the growth in total expenses for 2024-25 were employee expenses, social benefits to households in goods and services, current monetary transfers to households, use of goods and services and interest expense.
- Employee expenses increased 8.6% (up $22.1 billion), accounting for 31.3% of the growth in expenses.
- Social benefits to households in goods and services increased 12.3% (up $20.6 billion), accounting for 29.1% of the growth in expenses.
- Current monetary transfers to households increased 6.8% (up $10.7 billion), accounting for 15.1% of the growth in expenses.
- Use of goods and services increased 4.4% (up $8.1 billion), accounting for 11.4% of the growth in expenses.
- Interest expense increased 9.9% (up $6.0 billion), accounting for 8.5% of the growth in expenses.
Employee expenses rose with increased wages (from enterprise bargaining agreements, bonuses), higher levels of staffing for frontline services and increases in workers compensation.
Growth in social benefits to households was driven by increases in the cost of Aged Care Subsidy, National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Child Care Subsidy, health benefits and state power bonuses for households.
Current monetary transfers to households increased, driven by growth in aged pension payments and financial support for people with disabilities.
Use of goods and services also rose reflecting increased service delivery for community benefits and frontline services across most jurisdictions.
Revenue
Taxation revenue
Australia’s taxation revenue increased 4.7% (up $37.4 billion) and accounted for around 84.7% of the growth in total revenue in 2024-25. Commonwealth taxation revenue accounted for 69.4% (up $26.0 billion) of the rise in taxation revenue while state and local government contributed 30.6% (up $11.4 billion).
Commonwealth taxation revenue
Commonwealth taxation increased 4.0% (up $26.0 billion) in 2024-25, driven by income paid by other taxes, goods and services tax (GST), and personal income tax. Partially offsetting the rise was a decrease in customs duties on imports.
- Other taxes increased 19.4% ($17.6 billion). This was driven by growth in income tax paid by superannuation funds, noting the July 2024 increase in the employer’s super guarantee (from 11.0% to 11.5%) and reported increases in member contributions.
- GST increased 6.9% ($6.1 billion) in-line with CPI growth (a) and strong retail sales (b).
- Personal income tax increased 1.5% ($4.6 billion), compared to a 11.9% rise in 2023-24. The slower growth in 2024-25 was mainly due to the introduction of stage 3 tax cuts on 1 July 2024, as employment hours worked (c) and wage growth (d) continued to rise steadily across the financial year.
- Customs duties on imports decreased by 13.5% (down $1.9 billion) due to lower revenue from Tobacco excises (e).
- Source: Consumer Price Index, Australia, June Quarter 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Source: Retail Trade, Australia, June 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Source: Labour Force, Australia, June 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Source: Wage Price Index, Australia, June 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Source: Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2024–25 | Department of Finance
All other sources of Commonwealth taxation revenue are available in Table 1 of the Taxation Revenue, Australia, 2024-25 financial year release.
State and local government taxation revenue
State and local taxation revenue increased 7.5% (up $11.5 billion) in 2024-25 and was led by stamp duties on conveyances, payroll taxes and land taxes.
- Stamp duties on conveyances increased 11.8% (up $3.6 billion) in 2024-25 which was in-line with the rise of the Australia mean dwelling price to over $1 million (a) for the first time.
- Payroll taxes increased 7.6% (up $2.9 billion) which was around half the annual growth rates from the previous three financial years.
- Land taxes increased 10.1% (up $1.8 billion) which is less than half the annual growth from the previous two financial years. Victoria experienced a weaker growth in 2024-25 compared to 2023-24 which increased with the introduction of the COVID Debt levy introduced on 1 January 2024.
Royalties
Australia’s royalty income decreased by 22.7% (down $6.8 billion) in 2024-25 as coal prices continued to fall with subdued demand from China for Australian thermal and metallurgical coal (a).
Queensland royalties fell by 37.8% (down $4.8 billion) driven by the sharp decline in coal prices and less income collected under the state’s tiered coal royalty structure (b).
Western Australia fell 17.2 % (down $2.1 billion) due to lower iron ore sales over the year.
Expenses by purpose
The classification of the functions of Government - Australia (COFOG-A) disaggregates government expenditure by the primary purpose. More information on COFOG-A is available in the Australian System of Government Finance Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods.
Australian expenses in 2024-25 were $1030.5 billion, increasing 7.4% (up $70.8 billion) compared to 2023-24.
The main contributors to the growth in expenses were:
- $28.8 billion rise in social protection (up 10.2%)
- $15.0 billion rise in health (up 7.8%)
- $9.0 billion rise in education (up 6.4%)
- $8.3 billion rise in general public services (up 8.1%).
Social protection
Social protection increased 10.2% (up $28.8 billion) and accounted for 30.3% of total general government expenses in 2024-25. The increase in social protection was driven by government payments for old age and veterans, disability, family and children and other social protection. Commonwealth was the primary contributor to social protection expenses at 89.7%.
Old age and veteran payments increased 8.6% (up $9.5 billion) and included growth in aged care benefits, age pension, and military compensation payments.
- The growth in aged care benefits includes increased number of participants, additional homecare packages, and increases to award wages for workers under the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model (a).
- Growth in aged pension was driven by the impact of twice-yearly indexation (b) to ensure payment rates remain aligned with the rising cost of living and an aging population (c).
- Military rehabilitation and compensation payments increased as more veterans accessed support leading to higher claim volumes and greater assessed needs. Growth was also driven by indexation of compensation rates and higher average payment levels, particularly for incapacity and permanent impairment benefits (d).
Disability benefits increased 9.4% ($7.5 billion) but slowed from 14.2% compared to a year ago. The moderation of growth is consistent with NDIS reforms to address the financial sustainability of the scheme, introduced in the 2024-25 Budget.
Childcare and family benefits increased 9.1% ($5.0 billion), stabilising after the strong increase last year following increased payments to families introduced in July 2023 for second and subsequent children in care.
Social protection not elsewhere classified increased 30.1% (3.2 billion) and includes state power bonuses, Commonwealth energy bill relief for households and financial assistance for disaster emergency events (e).
- Source: Australian National Aged Care Classification funding model | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
- Source: How much Age Pension you can get | Services Australia
- Source: Older Australians, Demographic profile | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
- Source: Annual Report 2024-25 | Department of Veterans' Affairs
- Source: Annual Report 2024-25 | Services Australia
Health
Health increased 7.8% (up $15.0 billion) and accounted for 20.2% of total general government expenses in 2024-25. The increase in health was driven by hospital services and community health services.
Hospital services increased 7.6% (up $5.1 billion) and includes the impact of pay rises through negotiated enterprise bargaining agreements, bonuses and increases to full-time-equivalent (FTE) employees to meet service demand.
Community health services increased 8.6% (up $4.9 billion) reflecting growth in Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). This is driven by growth in service volumes (a) as well as legislated indexation of MBS payments from 1 July 2024. Bulk‑billing rates for GP services (b) increased in 2024-25 which included the tripling of the bulk‑billing incentive for children under 16 and concession card holders.
Education
Education increased 6.4% (up $9.0 billion) and accounted for 14.4% of total general government expenses in 2024-25. This was driven by increases in expenses across school and tertiary sectors.
Pre-primary, primary and secondary education increased 6.8% (up $5.2 billion) and were the largest component of the increase in education expenses. This includes the impact of pay rises through negotiated enterprise bargaining agreements, payments to non-government schools and continued rollout of pre-school, kindergarten and early childcare benefits across various states.
Tertiary education, which includes all public universities’ expenses, increased 8.3% (up $3.9 billion) driven by higher employee costs and operating costs increases in student numbers (a) compared to the previous year.
General public services
General public services grew, increasing 8.1% (up $8.3 billion) and accounted for 10.8% of total general government expenses in 2024-25. The increase in general public services was driven by public debt transactions.
Public debt transactions increased 9.9% (up $6.0 billion), driven by interest expenses, which rose due to higher interest rates, additional government borrowing and accrued interest on defined benefit superannuation across Australia.
Employee expenses
Australia's employee expenses (a) increased 8.6% (up $22.1 billion) in 2024-25. Growth was driven by wage increases (b) from newly negotiated enterprise bargaining agreements, changes to public sector wage caps, higher levels of staffing (i.e. frontline services in health, education and public order and safety) (c) and workers’ compensation expenses. Employee expenses accounted for 27.1% of total general government expenses in 2024-25.
State government employee expenses increased 7.3% (up $12.4 billion) for 2024-25. Other contributors to the increase in other employee expenses were:
- Commonwealth up 13.8% (up $6.8 billion)
- local government up 6.8% (up $1.2 billion)
- universities up 8.4% (up $1.7 billion).
- Employee expenses is comprised of superannuation, wages and salaries, workers’ compensation and other employee expenses
- Source: Wage Price Index, Australia, June 2025 | Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Source: Public sector employment and earnings, 2024-25 | Australian Bureau of Statistics