![]() ![]() “It is increasingly difficult to understand what the argument is for maintaining this reliance on an insecure and external workforce in the APS.” “The financial cost of this rampant outsourcing might be $21 billion, but the true cost is seen when you look at the adverse impacts this has had and is having on workplaces and public service delivery every single day. “Instead of engaging APS employees, the previous Government set up the shadow workforce where the only winners were labour hire companies and consulting firms,” CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly said. The Commonwealth Public Sector Union said a “shadow workforce” had emerged under the former Coalition government’s “ideological and arbitrary” staff caps. It agreed to a recommendation in the Defence Strategic Review to meet a 60:40 ratio split between APS or ADF staff and contractors for the Chief Information Officer Group (CIOG) workforce. The Albanese government earlier this month committed to reshaping the use of contractors by the biggest outsourcer, the defence portfolio. Most of this ($1.3 billion) was spent on contractors, followed by outsourced service providers ($429 million) and labour hire ($146 million). $1.9 billion of the total audited expenditure went to ICT and digital solutions. The five were responsible for almost 90 per cent of all expenditure on external labour, with Defence responsible for 76 per cent of the total reported expenditure on external labour for 2021-22. The actual spend on external labour was concentrated to five departments: Defence, Social Services, the Australian Taxation Office, Agriculture, Water and the Environment and Home Affairs. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs had the largest use of external labour as a percentage of its total workforce at 41 per cent, with the Defence portfolio at 26 per cent. The Social Services portfolio had 10 per cent of the total, while Agriculture had five per cent. The audit was released on Saturday, finding, “around one in every four dollars spent by agencies for departmental purposes was on external labour services.”Īround 65 per cent of the external labour is within the defence portfolio, with 26,199 outsourced service providers, 8,311 contractors and 370 consultants. The employment audit was launched last year to help the Albanese government determine how exactly it would achieve an election commitment to reverse “privatisation by stealth” and save $3 billion on outsourcing and expenses. “The Morrison government maintained its artificial cap on public servant numbers, promoting a mirage of efficiency, but were at the same time spending almost $21bn of public money on a shadow workforce that was deliberately kept secret,” Finance and Public Service minister Katy Gallagher said. The direct employment of public servants in the 112 agencies in the same period was 144,300. Nearly 54,000 full time equivalent staff were employed as an external workforce. Nearly $2 billion of the external labour spend last year was for ICT and digital solutions, but the tech spend is likely much larger with Defence unable to provide the audit with a breakdown of exactly where its spend went.ĭefence has been unwilling to provide a Senate inquiry into consultants with similar data, while other departments and agencies are forecasting a significant drop on their consulting spend in 2022/23.Īn employment audit of 112 Australian Public Service entities released on Saturday found the Coalition was outsourcing more than a quarter of public service operation in 2021/22 at a cost of $20.8 billion. Federal departments have slashed their spend on outside consultants in the Albanese government’s first year, as an audit reveals the cost of external labour ballooned to nearly $21 billion during the Morrison government’s final year. ![]()
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