Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Pocock for her question and I acknowledge the work the Senate is doing under the leadership of Senator O'Neill and Senator Pocock in pursuing issues that we've seen this year come to light, led by the PwC-Tax Practitioners Board case and then some of the work that we've been continuing on from that.

I would say that in a general sense there is a heap of work before us around how we rebalance the Public Service away from its over-reliance, dependence and inter-reliance on contractors and consulting companies. I knew it was a problem from opposition. It is worse than I thought when I came into this role and started having a look at it. We have started the work, as you would know, of trying to rebalance that by reducing the budget for a start and by re-employing public servants into roles that we believe should be done by the Public Service on behalf of the people of Australia, not by private consulting companies.

There is more work to be done. I think the area of contract extension or escalation is a real problem. It is one that I had noticed in opposition. There are rules around it that have to be met when contracts are varied, and those processes are outlined under the procurement guidance rules. But I do believe that there is more that we can do in this area to make sure that we are getting value for money, that we're managing those interests between taxpayers' funds and the way we procure services external to government. I think, certainly from my point of view, there is a stack of work under way but we are really only at the beginning of this.