People's Budget (Federal Portfolio Budget Statements 2017-18)

ACT Budget 2017-2018 · Federal PBS 2017-2018

See how the Federal Government spent money on Portfolio Budget Statements across the 8 largest spending departments. Each circle represents the flow of money towards these programs.

This prototype focuses on tax monies flowing into the government and being distributed to different departmental/directorate portfolios, with potential, with more time, to model the data by policy theme, or to map the full flow of money from tax income, to agencies then out to various government services and contractors.

We believe that modeling the budget in this way, moving away from graphs (which many people struggle to read), and showing 'live' flows of funding that could eventually be modelled in near-real-time, would help provide a different way for Australians and Canberrans to think about, and consider, how government accumulates and spends money within the economy.

This form of visualisation can provide new insights into where large amounts of money - or small amounts - are accumulating, and help people consider whether they feel comfortable with the government's spending choices.

Thanks to Andrew Gregory for AgentMaps, which formed the basis for this project -- and for reaching out to say hi when he found out about our project!