According to the ABC, the federal government’s use of contractors, consultants and labour-hire firms has exploded under the Coalition:
Today, Defence employs about 17,400 public servants. However, its outsourced civilian workforce is far larger than that — documents published under freedom of information (FOI) law show it has about 28,600 contractors.
These extra employees often have the same titles as public servants and even sit next to them in the office — but they work for private businesses, not the government.
