Coalition’s consultant cash grab

NEARLY $2.5 billion of taxpayer money has been poured into the pockets of management consultants since the federal Coalition won power, creating a phantom public service of private advisers.

Spending spiralled to a record $690 million in 2016-17 – three-quarters higher than the consultancy costs in 2012-13, when Labor lost office.

The lion’s share of spending went to the “big five’’ consulting firms, which often poach senior bureaucrats to work as consultants.

Accenture pocketed $1.2 billion in consultancy contracts from 2012-13 to 2016-17, an Australian National Audit Office report reveals.

Boston Consulting Group, which once employed Human Services Minister Alan Tudge, was given $78 million worth of work. Consulting giant PwC, which recently hired the former head of the Prime Minister’s Office for Women, Amanda McIntyre, pocketed $523 million.

Another $422 million was paid to Ernst & Young – whose federal government and public sector leader, Andrew Metcalfe, is a former Immigration Department secretary and exdeputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

KPMG snared $620 million worth of government work and Deloitte received $365 million.

During the Coalition’s fiveyear reign, federal government departments have spent $217 billion buying goods and services from the private sector, including $47 billion last financial year.