Moondog, you left out the GDP comparison figure, which is $1,283,796 million annual as at Dec 2010.
If Australia was spending 28% of this on 'welfare', then it would be spending $359,663 million on welfare a year, which is three times the figures provided by moondog.
Occam does need to provide a source for the numbers posted in the OP. And, preferable, what sort of spending is included in those numbers. It's obviously a lot more than support for the aged, unemployed etc. Maybe it includes health, education, law and order, defence etc - lol.
