Agriculture Department's consultant spend a $5k-a-day mark-up for APS: Labor senator Katy Gallagher

Opposition public service spokeswoman and ACT senator Katy Gallagher says a $1.2 million contract with PriceWaterhouseCoopers shows the government is recklessly spending to outsource work to the private sector.

The consultancy firm won a three-month contract to help the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment develop its Future Border Roadmap 2030, part of $500 million in government spending on reforms including biosecurity.

Daily costs per worker range between $1800 and $5800 to deliver "change and transformation", "marketing, communications, and engagement", and "strategy and policy".

Labor says the work could and should be performed by public servants in the department for between just $226 and $420 per person per day, but the government's staffing cap forces departments to outsource the work.

For the cost of 3124 hours of work from a major consultancy firm, the Agriculture Department could have hired about six ongoing APS6s and six ongoing EL1s to perform work for an entire year, Labor said.

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Senator Gallagher said the government was wasting money as it relied on public service outsourcing because of its staffing cap.

"Most Australians would be shocked to find out that Scott Morrison is allowing public service jobs to be outsourced at a rate of up to $5000 a day, all because he stubbornly won't dump his staffing cap policy," she said.

"Australians work hard for their money, and this is just one example of how Scott Morrison is, quite simply, wasting it and clearly not on their side."

An Agriculture Department spokesperson said contractors had been engaged to help deliver a large work agenda and also to provide new expertise in areas where it either doesn't exist or requires strengthening.

"These partnerships help not only to deliver the critical changes but provide important capability uplift and skills transfer to staff more broadly," the spokesperson said.

"The labour market is highly competitive, so the department is using a range of employment mechanisms to fill vacancies, including the use of contractors, to deliver its work. Contractors are a critical component of our blended workforce.

"They supplement our permanent workforce with additional capability and capacity to enable the department to deliver on its objectives."

The government has allocated $500 million to a large reform agenda including biosecurity, with several budget measures funding a temporary contractor workforce, the department said.

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