Qld LNP to starve consultants of work, revamp public service

David Crisafulli has pledged to ‘repair the toxic culture of fear in the public service’ and reduce government reliance on consultants.

Opposition leader David Crisafulli during the parliament sitting in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Queensland Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli will starve the big four consulting firms of work and revamp the public service if he wins next year’s state election.

Delivering his reply on Thursday to Treasurer Cameron Dick’s budget, Mr Crisafulli said he would “repair the toxic culture of fear in the public service” and ­reduce government reliance on external consultants.

His pledge comes almost nine years after Campbell Newman’s LNP government was booted out of office following the sacking of 14,000 public servants.

Mr Crisafulli said the Palaszczuk government had grown “obsessed” with outsourcing policy advice to consultants, particularly the big four – Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC.

“The days of endless buckets of taxpayers’ money being handed over to the big four consulting firms to complete the work of the public service will end,” he said.

“An LNP government will value, empower and resource Queensland’s public service to once again become the powerhouse our state needs.”

Mr Dick launched a review of all contracts with PwC last month after a former partner was found to have leaked a confidential federal government briefing about combating tax avoidance with ­clients and partners.

Mr Crisafulli said in the past five years, the state Labor government had spent at least $423m on the big four consulting firms.

“This obsession was typified by the Premier spending nearly $800,000 for Deloitte to run a report to justify her decision to hoover up control of the Olympics into her own office,” he said.

The Opposition Leader said if successful at the 2024 election, the LNP would redirect consultancy spend into professional development for the public service.

“We will stop the outsourcing of tasks that could be completed by the public service,” he said.

“A public service empowered in decision making, and free to give frank and fearless advice, will help an LNP government drive state building projects free from the billions of dollars of cost overruns that is rife in this government,” he added.

Former Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake delivered a scathing review of the state’s public sector that uncovered a culture tolerant of bullying, dominated by short-term political thinking and unwilling to give life to unfashionable points of view.

“Part of the problem is an identifiable loss of capacity in the public service which has been accelerated by what is now an over-reliance on external contractors and consultants,” Professor Coaldrake wrote in his final report.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk accepted all of Professor Coaldrake’s 14 recommendations, including that departments should “more robustly account for the benefits derived from engaging consultants and contractors, with regular monitoring by the auditor-general”.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said Mr Crisafulli’s planned changes to the public sector would “send shivers down the spines of each and every Queensland public servant”.

Mr Crisafulli has previously said selling state assets and cutting government services was firmly “off the table”, after Mr Newman slashed public sector jobs and planned to privatise assets to pay down debt.

In his budget reply, Mr Crisafulli also committed to a Treasury Department review of procurement processes, to appoint a victim of crime to the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council and assess “gaps” in the health workforce.

“With an ageing and growing population, we will commence this work to ensure that our health system is adequately and sustainably staffed with a highly skilled workforce well into the ­future,” the LNP leader said.