Giant pandas, Pacific cops and crazy ants: Weird, woke projects win millions in 2025 Budget

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has gotten his skates on with a wacky menagerie of budget beneficiaries – plus a sweetener for NRL fans. Find out the weirdest ways millions of taxpayers dollars will be spent.

What do giant pandas and harbour-dwelling fish have in common?

Both will turn out to be bigger beneficiaries of the Albanese government’s fourth budget than the average frontline worker with funding for both topping $39 million.

While the vast majority of new spending in the 2025 federal budget has been dedicated to boosting school funding, improving Medicare and tax cuts, some wacky and ultra-specific projects and priorities have also been given a splash of cash.

Giant Panda Xing Qiu makes his public debut at Adelaide Zoo in January. The endangered bear will claim a share of $800,000 a year in taxpayer dollars. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Adelaide Zoo’s giant pandas, on loan from China, will cost the government $7.6 million over the next decade with $800,000 to be spent each year supporting the pair, presumably covering at least a few truckloads of bamboo.

The Albanese government has also waded back into the murky waters of marine conservation with an additional $3 million being spent to placate fans (including Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek) of the Maugean skate, a species of fish endangered by Tasmanian salmon farming in their harbour habitat.

A Maugean skate in Macquarie Harbour.

The funding will “support the increasing number of baby Maugean skates” following a successful captive breeding program, which had previously been allocated $28.6 million in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO).

Sydney’s Greek Orthodox community will receive a similar slice of the pie for major restoration works at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia site on Cleveland Street in Redfern.

The future of the endangered fish and the salmon industry has become a political flashpoint in Tasmania. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Davis Jones

Their $25 million will go towards restoring the historical Cathedral church, upgrading St Andrew’s Theological College, and building a new great hall, library and museum.

Big news, too, for NRL fans in Sydney’s outer southern suburbs – the St George Illawarra Dragons will be building a new “Community and High Performance Centre” for elite athletes and locals alike, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers is giving them $13.6 million to do it.

Biosecurity and agriculture are also a clear priority with a further $11.0 million to be spent in 2025–26 on reducing “the economic and environmental burden of established feral animals, pests and weeds”.

October 13, 2024: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stands by the Greek flag as he delivers remarks at the centenary celebration of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia at Kia Arena in Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire/Tamati Smith.

More specifically, “a more concerted approach to yellow crazy ant eradication activities in Townsville and … Cairns” will cost $15.6 over three years.

Meanwhile funding for composting your kitchen scraps will be wound back, slashed from $17.6 million this year to $11.7 million for the next financial year. Spending on the “food waste for healthy soils” program, which sets out to “support infrastructure that will increase Australia’s processing capacity and diversion of organic waste from landfill for productive use on Australia’s soils”, will be halved in NSW alone.

Originally published as Giant pandas, Pacific cops and crazy ants: Weird, woke projects win millions in 2025 Budget