$12m cash splash: Qld Health’s consultancy bill revealed

Queensland Health spent a whopping $12m on consultancies in a single year data has revealed, more than any other major department in the state.

Former Health Minister, Shannon Fentiman. Picture: David Clark

Queensland Health spent a whopping $12m on consultancies in a single year data has revealed, more than any other major department in the state.

It comes after the Courier-Mail revealed the embattled infrastructure arm of Queensland Health spent $1.2m to write up a public relations strategy for its severely blown out construction pipeline.

It can now be revealed the strategy led to Health Infrastructure Queensland creating a 13-person strong communication and engagement team — a workforce big enough to rival similar teams at Metro North and Metro South HHS.

Analysis of the use of consultancies across the state’s seven largest departments — including Justice and Attorney-General, State Development, Education, Treasury, Premier and Cabinet, and Transport and Main Roads --- found Queensland Health spent the most in 2023/24.

Queensland Health’s $12.2m spend on consultancies dwarfed those of other departments, and made up 55 per cent of the $21.9m bill for those seven departments.

The department’s 2023/24 spend is also up from the $9.89m spent the previous financial year.

A Queensland Health spokesman said the department “engages external services for work where the specialist or technical skills in the department are not readily available”.

“Consultants have the expertise, experience and resources needed to provide efficient solutions to complex, and often urgent, issues. They are adept at commencing roles rapidly and capably,” he said.

New Health Minister Tim Nicholls during Parliament. Picture: Office of the Premier

The state government has promised to crack down on the use of consultancies in a bid to save taxpayer cash, with Health Minister Tim Nicholls signalling he would be putting a microscope over his department.

Queensland Health’s use of consultancies has come under the spotlight after it was revealed HIQ, which is in-charge of the severely blown out health big build, spent $1.2m hiring consultancy firm Struber Pty Ltd to write a “communications framework”.

Struber’s work prompted HIQ to hire its own breakaway media spinning duo with tasks that included “effectively identifying and minimising emergent media risks”.

But further question have since revealed HIQ’s full communications and engagement team is 13 people “comprising a mix of skills in infrastructure communications and engagement, infrastructure design and project support”.

A Queensland Health spokesman confirmed six of the roles were filled, with Struber consultants also supporting while the seven other vacancies are filled.

“Communications and engagement is critical to the success of infrastructure projects, which is why HIQ is continuing to establish a dedicated team to lead this work,” he said.

Metro North HHS and Metro South HHS — which collectively take in 11 hospitals and five satellite hospitals —have 13.3 and 11.6 full time equivalent staff in their respective communications and engagement team.

Those roles cover internal and external communication, media, disaster and emergency communication, marketing, messaging on projects, and managing internal and public facing websites.