Last month, the ABC reported that the federal government’s use of contractors, consultants and labour-hire firms has exploded under the Coalition:
…an ABC analysis of about 120,000 federal government contracts — for services such as consulting, staffing and recruitment — suggests the Commonwealth’s market for “private” labour has doubled in the past five years, and is now worth more than $5 billion a year.
The biggest spenders are the biggest workplaces: Defence, the Australian Taxation Office and Services Australia (which runs Centrelink and Medicare offices).
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Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
