Over the last ten years, the Big Four (KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and Deloitte) have donated $4,289,253 to the ALP and Coalition. Over the same period, total contract volume for the firms jointly has increased by over 400 per cent, from $282 million in 2012-13 to over $1.4 billion in 2021-22. While business has boomed for the Big Four, the Australian Public Service (APS) – one of the pillars upon which our Westminster democracy depends – has been left with static staff numbers and a diminished policy capability. The increased outsourcing of crucial public interest policy work to private contractors who are not directly accountable and financially back both parties raises both questions of integrity and public value-for-money. To arrest the decimation of Australia’s public service, the Centre for Public Integrity recommends:

1. Re-centring the APS as the main policy advisory body in government, with resort to external advisors only where there is a demonstrated and acute need for such services;
2. Imposing a cap on each department’s use of consultants (with exceptions available for circumstances of national emergency);
3. Requiring rigorous reporting by departments to Parliament in respect of the use of consultants;
4. Removal of the APS Average Staffing Level Cap introduced in 2015-16;
5. Implementation of a donation cap and spending caps to reduce undue influence of well-resourced corporations.