History never repeats but it sure does rhyme.
Upon being elected in March 1996, the Howard Government commenced a program of cutting spending and jobs across public sector agencies, only to then hire an army of consultants and contractors.
The grand irony from the Howard Government experience was that many of the contractors were the same former public servants that had received generous redundancy payouts and then were paid much more to do the same job.
It was nice work if you could get it. Not so nice for taxpayers, though.
Now, it appears that the same process is being played-out with the current Coalition Government. Today, The Canberra Times has reported that the Department of Defence has been handing out redundancy payments to people they have then re-employed as contractors at higher rates of pay:
Defence Science and Technology Group staff member Tim Bussell has told a Senate committee the Australian taxpayer was not only forking out for the pensions and packages of those taking redundancies; he said Defence was also paying the increased salaries for the same people being re-employed soon after as contractors…
Only in the public service…
