⚙️ Political Gadgets News | Saturday, 18 July 2026
Today’s Political Gadgets digest covers: Federal contracts: $56,163,677 awarded; largest to Data#3 Limited ($28,016,810); Parliament: not sitting; MP expenses: Luke Gosling (Solomon, Lab) — $708,637 over 4 quarters; Political advertising: Google $9,900 (YTD $2,962,200); Facebook $72,367 (YTD $1,600,474).
Today’s digest includes:
- Federal contracts: $56,163,677 awarded; largest to Data#3 Limited ($28,016,810)
- Parliament: not sitting
- MP expenses: Luke Gosling (Solomon, Lab) — $708,637 over 4 quarters
- Political advertising: Google $9,900 (YTD $2,962,200); Facebook $72,367 (YTD $1,600,474)
Bluesky says Pauline Hanson’s European holiday reveals the one-nation leader is, by her own words, unmistakably a racist.
BlueSky #auspol · 18 July 2026, 05:29 AEST · 518 posts · AI-generated
The dominant story dominating Australian political discourse on Bluesky in the 24 hours to Friday morning centres on One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s appearance on a podcast with far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, during which she explicitly lamented the end of the White Australia Policy. The interview—conducted while Hanson holidayed in Sicily with mining billionaire Gina Rinehart—has crystallised long-standing criticism and forced a reckoning with her political identity that media outlets have historically soft-pedalled.
Key issues driving engagement include the explicit articulation of white nationalist policy nostalgia; the optics of Hanson criticising welfare recipients while vacationing with an oligarch on taxpayer funds; and broader questions about One Nation’s internal stability, with Barnaby Joyce reportedly fuming over succession plans favouring Hanson’s daughter. Secondary concerns span the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, AUKUS defence spending, and data centre expansion policy, each drawing sustained critical commentary.
The most striking exchange came from veteran commentator Simon Rosenberg, whose post urging media outlets to simply call Hanson “racist”—rather than describing her policies—garnered substantial engagement. The overall tone is one of exasperation: a sense that Hanson has finally removed plausible deniability from her political project, and that Australian institutions and media have been complicit in avoiding that language for decades.
Top topics: Pauline Hanson Racism Controversy · White Australia Policy Nostalgia · One Nation Leadership Crisis · Welfare vs Oligarch Optics · Royal Commission Antisemitism
AI-generated from BlueSky #auspol posts.
Register of Interests Update — Andrew Wallace
Fisher, Queensland
Liberal National Party
Additions
| Person | Item | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Self | 11. Gifts | Financial Planning Advice from Profile Financial Services valued at $6,380 |
| Spouse/Partner | 11. Gifts | Financial Planning Advice from Profile Financial Services valued at $6,380 |
Deletions
None
Register of Interests Update — Jason Clare
Blaxland, New South Wales
Australian Labor Party · Minister for Education
Additions
| Person | Item | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Self | 11. Gifts | Hoodie from the University of New South Wales – received on 13 July 2026 – valued at $80 |
| Self | 11. Gifts | Book from the National Museum of Australia – received on 15 July 2026 – valued at $20 |
Deletions
None
Register of Interests Update — Carol Berry
Whitlam, New South Wales
Australian Labor Party
Additions
| Person | Item | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Self | 11. Gifts | Complimentary ticket to attend the Ocean Decade Australia Ocean Summit. |
Deletions
None
Data#3 Secures $28 Million in Federal Microsoft Licensing Contracts
Brisbane-based technology provider Data#3 Limited has been awarded two contracts worth a combined $28 million to supply Microsoft software to federal agencies under the government's new Volume Sourcing Agreement. The contracts, signed by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Clean Energy Regulator, run for three and five years respectively and cover Microsoft 365, Azure cloud services and related products.
Data#3, which reported gross sales of $3 billion in 2025 and employs more than 1,400 staff across Australia, was appointed in March 2026 as the sole License Solution Provider on the Digital Transformation Agency's panel supporting the Microsoft VSA6 framework. The ASX-listed company, founded in 1977, serves enterprise, government and education clients including Griffith University, Energy Queensland and Mitsubishi. It was named Microsoft's 2025 Country Partner of the Year for Australia.
The VSA6 arrangement, which commenced on July 1, 2026, provides whole-of-government access to Microsoft's enterprise and cloud products with volume discounts and capped price increases. The previous iteration of the agreement, in place from 2019 to 2024, generated more than $1.2 billion in expenditure and delivered $1.6 billion in discounts across all Single Seller Arrangements during that period, according to a DTA review.
Sources: data3.com; dta.gov.au; crn.com.au; itnews.com.au; arnnet.com.au [link]
All tenders
Fed govt contracts given today came to $56,163,677. The winner is Data#3 Limited ($28,016,810) [link]
Consultant Tenders
$249,049,648 in Federal contracts to the big consultants in 2026. $143,000 yesterday. – Deloitte: $143,000 {17} [link]
What’s Parliament doing
Parliament… is not sitting today. There are no committees today. {33} [link]
Flights
The VIP fleet flew at least 0 km in the last few days. That’s 1 plane doing 1 flight over 6 hrs and 25 mins and costing around $29,328. [link]
Fed Govt Outsourced labour costs
Government Temporary Staff Tenders in the last day: $19,312,935 [link]
Politician Expenses
Luke Gosling (Reps, Solomon, Lab) claimed $708,637 in expenses over the last 4 reported quarters for major categories such as travel, offices and cars. That is $87,412 less than the average. #auspol [link]
Double Donors
Eastbound Estate donated $15,000 in 2023-24. That was $5,000 to Labor and $10,000 to the Coalition. {8470} #auspol [link]
Parliamentary attendance
Garth Hamilton (representatives, Groom, Liberal National Party) attended 70.4% of possible votes. [link]
Political advertising on Google
Political advertising spend with Google in last 24 hours: $9,900. (YTD: $2,962,200) [link]
Political advertising on Facebook
Political advertising on Facebook yesterday: $72,367. (YTD: $1,600,474) [link]
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