"Why didn't they bloody ROBOTAX those bludgers ?" Your answer is in the article that you linked: "The reasons why 710 companies did not pay any tax in 2017-18 included: -269 entities that reported a taxable income but prior-year losses were available to deduct against that profit, so no tax was payable -242 entities reported an accounting loss -146 entities reported an accounting profit but reconciliation items (such as tax deductions allowed at higher rates than accounting permits) resulted in a tax loss -53 entities reported a taxable income but were also entitled to offsets (such as the research and development tax incentive) at least equal to the tax otherwise payable" (The figures add up to 710)
This means that ~34% made a loss and ~37% carried over losses from previous years.
