Morrison government spent $20.8bn on consultants and outsourcing public service in final year, audit finds

The previous Coalition government spent $20.8bn outsourcing more than a third of public service operations, an audit has found.

The federal government released the findings of the Australian public service audit of employment on Saturday, which examined the hiring practices and associated costs of 112 public service agencies, excluding the CSIRO, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and parliamentary departments.

The audit also found outsourced service providers made up nearly 70% of the $20.8bn total spending on external labour, while more than a quarter of it went to contractors and consultants.

In 2015, the-then Coalition government made a decision to keep public sector staffing levels at the approximate equivalent of 2006-2007 levels, the equivalent of 167,596 staff, excluding the military.

In 2021, the Community and Public Sector Union told a senate inquiry into the capability of the public service that labour hire and external contracting was used for day-to-day public service work due to government policies meaning agencies were unable to directly employ staff.

The policy has been long-held by the party, which also took it to the 2019 federal election.