Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Pocock for the question and for her ongoing interest in the area of the use of consultants and contractors, alongside the very important work that Senator O'Neill has been doing throughout the last term in this area. Of course, the issues around PwC were extremely concerning to the government, and we made comments at the time. As you say, there are a number of ongoing investigations, so I don't want to get into those. Ultimately it is appropriate that ministers are not involved in procurement decisions. It's a big part of my role as finance minister. I get a lot of feedback about how people would like ministers to get more involved in procurement. I think there are very good reasons why we don't.

My job is to make sure that there is a process around who procures with government and how people can engage with government to win contracts and that those arrangements are proper and appropriate. The decisions about who is eligible to procure from government is a matter quite rightly left to the Public Service. That may be the Department of Finance, through the work that they do essentially coordinating the procurement guidance across the Public Service. That answers your question about that. It is a matter for the department. I've had a number of briefings with the department on their decision. As you'll know, it was a voluntary agreement that was reached for PwC not to seek contracts from government for a period of time as Finance undertook some detailed work and sought commitments and assurances from them. That work has been completed. The advice to me from Finance is that, with all the assurances and undertakings that PwC had given, it was appropriate to allow them to bid for work. That does not necessarily mean they will get work. (Time expired)