Every year, the federal budget lands with all the grace of a brick - hundreds of pages of dense, technical jargon. The media does a great job analysing the headline announcement, but the real detail - what matters to you specifically - often gets lost.

AskTheBudget.com.au is an AI-powered tool that helps you dig into the actual budget papers and get straight answers to specific questions—about funding for housing, climate, small business, the arts, or whatever matters in your world.

What is it?

AskTheBudget is an AI-powered tool that helps Australians get clear, direct answers from the federal budget papers - without needing to wade through PDFs or translate jargon into English.

Want to know how much funding is going to housing, climate, small business, or arts? Just ask. We built this so you can get to the truth faster- and actually understand where your tax dollars are going.

How does it work?

It uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) - which means it doesn’t just guess, it searches the real documents and gives you a clear, plain-English answer (or other languages, if you prefer). Think of it as a very nerdy, very fast budget analyst you can actually understand.

Who’s behind this?

I’m Alex Hagan, a strategist and futurist. I originally built this to help my clients navigate the budget, and figured—why not make it public? It’s not professional advice, and AI isn’t perfect (check your sources), but it’s built to empower people, not politicians.

Is it politically affiliated?

Nope. Not affiliated, not biased, not pushing an agenda. Just here to make the budget more accessible to actual humans.

What happens with my data?

Other than standard web metrics, I don’t keep logs of your questions or collect personal information. Your privacy matters - and so does trust.

Why does it matter?

Because democracy works better when people actually know what’s going on. Budgets affect everything - from the price of milk to whether your local school gets funding next year. You deserve to understand it. And I hope this tool will help you do that.

Could you build something like this for my organisation?

Absolutely. fill in the contact form below and let me know what you’re looking for.