Union lashes out at Andrews government on $1bn spend for external consultants

A war of words has broken out over the state government’s massive spend on external consultants while the public service faces job cuts.

Victoria’s public sector union has taken a public swipe at the Andrews government over its botched hotel quarantine program amid a new war of words over the state’s growing spend on consultants.

Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) figures reveal the government has spent close to $1bn on external consultants over an eight-year period.

Victorian branch secretary Karen Batt branded the spending spree as “obscene” while the public service faces job cuts.

“With funded vacancies across the service at 20 per cent then maybe the government could use consultants to be child protection practitioners, youth justice, or housing, court, and community correction officers,” Ms Batt said

“This approach seemed to work well when hotel quarantine was first established.”

CPSU Vic branch secretary Karen Batt said using consultants for other purposes ‘seemed to work well when hotel quarantine was established’. Picture: Ian Currie

The Premier on Thursday said he “wasn’t surprised” government expenditure had skyrocketed across external agencies and accused the CPSU of trying to “have it both ways”.

“I’m not sure whether the CPSU is critical of that or just pointing it out – we’ve also added a lot of public servants, we’ve also got a lot of things done, so I’m not surprised to see that expenditure in lots of areas are higher under our government,” Mr Andrews said.

“You kind of can’t have it both ways, can you, if you’re the CPSU – complaining about too many consultancies and then complaining if you have to do more work.

“Like, let’s be clear, we have added a number of people that we need, we’ve got the expertise that is critically important.

“You’ve got to be consistent – are there too many consultants or not enough?”

It comes amid ongoing tensions between the union and the government as Treasurer Tim Pallas tries to balance the budget.

The CPSU has opposed efforts to reign in departmental spending on benefits and staff, pointing to the use of consultants as an example of expenses that should be cut first.

In 2021-2022 alone, government departments forked out more than $176m to consulting companies including KPMG, Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse Coopers, according to CPSU figures.

The Department of Transport spent $37m on external consultants, while the Department of Health paid private sector companies $16m during the same period.

The jobs, precincts and roads department clocked up a $36m consultant bill, while Victoria Police spent more than $6m.

The government spent more than half a billion dollars employing consultants across ten departments between 2018 and 2022, and nearly $1bn all up since Mr Andrews was elected in 2014.

Ms Batt described consultants as “the secret government workforce that comes at a premium price”.

“Government is addicted to contracting their thinking out each year to some very questionable corporations when building their own in house capabilities would be smarter, safer, and for a fraction of the cost,” Ms Batt said.

“Close to a billion dollars has gone to consultancy agencies over eight years of Labor in government.

“If the Premier can’t find the dollars for staff in his human rights or Arts agency and is serious about tackling WorkSafe’s finances he only has to cut the consultancies.”