The Victorian Greens have called on the Victorian Labor Government to slash spending on consultancies, following the release of a new VAGO report today.
The report reveals that instead of cutting spending on consultants as promised, Labor has increased spending by hundreds of millions of dollars with more than half of the spend going to the ‘big five’ – KPMG, PwC, E&Y, Deloitte and BCG.
The Department of Treasury and Finance paid for the most for external consultants of any department, including contracting the scandal-plagued PwC for ‘advice on tax reform’ in the last financial year.
Victorian Greens treasury spokesperson, Sam Hibbins, said the government was cutting public sector jobs at the same time as increasing spending on private consultants.
A recent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) costing obtained by the Greens has found halving expenditure on private consultants would free up $1.5 billion dollars over the next ten years.
As stated by Victorian Greens Treasury spokesperson, Sam Hibbins MP:
“Labor promised to cut spending on private consultants. Instead they’ve increased it at the same time they’re slashing jobs and funding across the public sector.
“In a cost-of-living crisis it’s pretty disappointing that Labor is cutting hundreds of public sector jobs while spending hundreds of millions of dollars on consultants to tell them what they want to hear.
“This needs to change. Halving the state’s spending on consultants would raise $1.5 billion dollars that could be reinvested in the public service, to help people in need.”
