Labor spending more on consultants than the Coalition, Greens say

Labor spent nearly $1 billion on outsourcing work to consulting firms in 2024-25, eclipsing the amount spent by the Morrison government in 2021-22, the Greens have said in a statement.

“Labor has boasted savings on consultants every year it held office in the last parliament. Yet Labor spent more last year on consulting contracts than the final year of the consultant-addicted Morrison government. The numbers speak louder than their empty words,” Greens senator Barbara Pocock said.

“This data paints a picture of a business as usual approach following the PwC consultancy scandal and a continued lack of transparency by a government which claims to be spending less, while in fact spending even more.”

As part of its pre-election platform, Labor vowed to reduce its reliance on external consultants.

From late 2023, it assembled an in-house consulting body which sought to “reduce over-reliance on external consultants” in the aftermath of the PwC tax scandal. It pledged to boost in-house government capability and shave $3 billion off outsourcing expenses over the four years to 2026-27.

However, the Greens have accused Labor of not delivering on this promise. In 2024-25, Labor spent $968.6 million outsourcing work to consulting firms.

They added that Labor spent $76.5 million on 90 consulting contracts in the first two weeks of 2025-26.

“Already in the first two weeks of this financial year, the government has spent $76 million on 90 contracts. This is a government that has said it wants to eliminate wasteful outsourcing yet all signs point to Labor being no different to previous governments - it’s one big smokescreen,” Pocock said.

“We know that outsourcing public service work to the private sector costs three-times as much as hiring public servants to do the work and we know it’s eroding our public service - so why this government is spending even more on consultants is beyond belief.”

The Greens have also slammed the Labor government’s decision to allow PwC to compete for government work again following the tax leaks scandal.

In 2022, it came to light that PwC’s international tax chief had breached confidentiality by sharing sensitive government client information on upcoming multinational tax laws, tipping off multinational clients to the new laws.

The scandal eroded public trust in the ‘big four’ consultancies EY, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, especially among government agencies.

The Greens found that Labor had reduced its contracts with the big four consulting firms, shrinking spending on such consultants by 47 per cent between 2021-22 and 2024-25.

At the same time, Labor had increased its spending on consulting contracts every year in the last parliament, spending $622 million in 2022-23, $653 million in 2023-24 and $968.6 million in 2024-25.

The Greens found that the majority of spending and contracts were now going to consulting firms that were not one of the ‘big seven’ (Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, EY, McKinsey and PwC).

“While Labor says they’re spending less on consultants, this data shows that instead of spending as much on the Big 4 consulting firms, the government is spending even more money but just on other firms,” Pocock said.

“What’s clear is that the government has been claiming that it has been reducing spending on consultants, but all they’re doing is arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”