Fresh evidence from the ABS has revealed taxpayers are forking out up to twice as much for contractors than for permanent staff, indicating the real cost of the Liberals’ blowout on external consultants and labour-hire workers for the first time.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics in a submission to the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit said:

“Recent benchmarking noted that contracted ICT staff cost approximately double that of internal staff. For non ICT staff, the cost is approximately 125-150% of internal staff, this excludes recruitment fees. This higher human capital cost therefore has a significant impact on ABS costs and budgets.”

(ABS supplementary to submission 25, JCPAA Contracting Inquiry)

The ABS submission is the smoking gun which exposes just how much taxpayer money the Liberals are wasting through labour-hire firms instead of hiring permanent staff.

This latest evidence is the first time the public has been given a straight answer about how much of their money is being wasted, and it raises serious concerns about the Liberals’ spending blowouts.

Turnbull lectures middle Australia about the need for cuts to schools, hospitals and vulnerable Australians while spraying around billions of dollars for contractors and consultants.

By hollowing out the public service and imposing arbitrary staff caps, the Liberals are forcing Government agencies to spend more taxpayer money on less.

There’s a time and place for expert external advice, but wasting taxpayer money is not acceptable, especially with record and growing debt on the Liberals’ watch.

Malcolm Turnbull and Mathias Cormann need to realise Australians need good services and genuine value for money, not out-of-touch and out-of-whack priorities that waste more taxpayer money and deliver less in return.

Australians deserve to know how much of their money is going to contractors, consultants and labour hire.

This is an important inquiry by JCPAA.

Labor will carefully consider the Committee’s work and has already committed to end the secrecy around contractor spending blowouts and require procurement and government spending data to be collected on a central database, including contract reporting and consultancy spending.