A Parliamentary committee will today probe the Turnbull Government’s waste of money on contractors and consultants in the public service.

The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit will hear from several departments and experts on the impact of arbitrary staffing caps on spending blowouts on contractors and consultants.

Malcolm Turnbull’s own department has already told the inquiry in a submission that staffing caps have forced agencies to turn to external contractors to fill key roles, and:

“Through removing ASL caps, agencies may have greater flexibility to recruit specialist staff at a reduced cost.”

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

By hollowing out the public service and imposing arbitrary 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 the Liberals’ blowout isn’t sustainable, especially when the Budget’s in such a mess.

Under the Liberals, the deficit has blown out eight-fold, net debt has more than doubled and gross debt has crashed through half-a-trillion dollars, with no peak in sight.

Malcolm Turnbull and Mathias Cormann just don’t get it. Australians need and deserve 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.