Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate takes note of the document.

I will also be referring to the government response on the final report of the Finance and Public Administration References Committee's Inquiry into the Management and Assurance of Integrity by Consulting Services. I want to thank colleagues, particularly Senators Colbeck and O'Neill, for their work on these inquiries. It was a big job, and we worked very collectively and cooperatively on it. It is rare that you see tripartisan recommendations in this place on such a large body of work, which makes Labor's incredibly woeful response to the two consultant inquiry recommendations, to me, all the more disappointing.

Australians are tired of seeing the same story play out over and over again. First, there's a massive scandal. In this case, it's PwC deliberately monetising confidential Treasury information. We cannot forget that this was one of the most shocking breaches of public trust in recent memory. PwC made millions of dollars in fees, and staff gloated in internal emails about their success. Next, an inquiry is announced and evidence is gathered. Between the two inquiries, we held 22 public hearings and received 144 submissions. Australians paid attention. We unearthed a tidal wave of malpractice, poor governance and structural failures. We asked serious questions about integrity, influence and the hollowing out of the public sector. Our reports were issued, with clear road maps for how reform needed to unfold. Between them, the two inquiries made 52 evidence-based recommendations, which were agreed by Labor, the Liberals and Greens. Then, just when the public expects decisive action, the government shrugs. It issues a short response and quietly moves on. That is not accountability. It is not leadership, and it is not good enough.

What good is the Labor Party if our community and our Senate go through all of that work and then it simply makes tiny steps towards progress? What is a Labor government for if not to deal with such a significant failure of governance and integrity in our community? This is a government of gestures. When it comes to critical reform in response to a crisis like this, it shrugs; it gestures. Despite a truckload of evidence and comprehensive recommendations, the government is once again choosing to tinker around the edges. Instead of committing to the kind of wholesale reform we need, the government's response is to fob off our reports with tiny baby steps that nowhere near meet the scale of the crisis.

Let me remind everyone what these inquiries found. They laid bare systemic problems in the way that federal governments engage with consultants. They showed that successive governments have allowed a massive and unchecked expansion of the consulting industry inside the heart of decision-making. They raised serious concerns about conflicts of interest, revolving doors between public office and private profit, and horrible workplace cultures, rife with bullying and sexual harassment, where profit and earnings are king. They showed that audit quality is in decline, with ASIC calling for concerted action from both Deloitte and KPMG to lift their game.

There is no shortage of scandals that these inquiries uncovered. Who can forget KPMG's systemic power mapping of government department staff? They were colour-coded, laid out to a person, named and graded for their land-and-expand potential. Then KPMG lied about it. They said they didn't do it, but there were the maps that proved that they misled the Senate. People who charge millions for their work, people who ask for your watch to tell you their time—we need to do better, and these scandals were multiple.

What about the scandal around the then CEO of PwC, Luke Sayers, who was paid $30 million—an astronomical amount of money—for his eight years at PwC, through the years of scandal and deceitful monetisation of confidential information? This is a man who could not recall any crucial conversations with the ATO and who looks to have experienced more damage from an intimate photo scandal than from his serious failures in management and leadership at the top of PwC. PwC's unwillingness to provide the Senate with key documents was symptomatic of its problematic engagement with the various committees and the many hearings.

There's been a vast array of ethical failures, unchecked conflicts of interest and a lack of regulation in the consulting and auditing sector. The scandals have been frequent and global in nature, and yet what have we seen in response from this Labor government? There's review after review, no urgency and not enough meaningful action. I'm hearing from whistleblowers and witnesses who gave evidence to our inquiries in good faith that they're incredibly disappointed at Labor's quiet retreat from what is really needed here. There's no clear commitment to end the practice that allowed this situation to arise in the first place. The recommendations were tripartisan. If the government genuinely wanted to clean up the consultancy sector, it would support its own Labor senators' recommendations. Instead, their response has failed to meet the moment. It's one thing to have shared outrage. It's another to ensure that the tax leak scandals never happen again.

We have the evidence of the consultancy sector ripping off the public and taxpayers and we have clear recommendations. So when will this government act? The government noted all 40 recommendations in the second report. They noted them. There has been no action in structural reform of the kind that is clearly recommended, laid out in these reports; no action on stopping the revolving door; no action on holding PwC or Luke Sayers truly accountable; no action on conflict of interest or banning political donations from contractors; no independent regulator of the consulting sector—and the list goes on.

Six months ago, I stood in this chamber and expressed my outrage at the government's decision to allow PwC to rebid for government contracts. It was a decision that Senator Colbeck, Senator O'Neill and I strongly opposed. We wrote a joint letter arguing that we saw no meaningful justification for giving PwC the green light while significant investigations remained ongoing. Regardless, they were let back into contracting to the public sector. What a shame. What a shocking failure of governance by the Labor government. This was gutless. It was a gutless decision, so far from the standard that Australians face in their own workplaces and community for their own behaviour.

The government's refusal to clean up the unethical practices rife across the consulting sector is the reason why I introduced a bill to this parliament to ban unethical contractors. It's not enough to have a code of conduct. There have to be consequences. As any parent of a small child knows, there must be logical consequences for behaviour. Unless there are, kids repeat it. People with bad ethics in the consulting sector certainly do. We have to close the legal loopholes that allow government contractors who behave unethically to get away with it. They are laughing all the way back into public consulting and all the way to the bank.

The government response reiterates that the government is aiming to 'reduce the government's reliance on contractors and consultants and rebuild capability within the APS'. This is coming from a government that spent more on consulting firms than the Morrison government. The recent biannual consultant spending data shows that, in the last six months of last year, the government had committed to spending over $600 million in contracts worth $2 million or more. Is this the behaviour of a government that is truly reducing its reliance on outsourcing?

The Greens will continue to push for real reform. We want to see real reform, real transparency, real accountability. We will not accept a system where public policy is shaped behind closed doors by those with the deepest pockets and the best access. Australians deserve a government that works for them, not one that looks the other way when the warning signs are flashing red. What are you for, Labor? Not just for the scandal—you must be there for the action. When confronted with two of the most damning inquiries into consultant influence ever conducted by this parliament and probably internationally, the government has chosen inaction dressed up as responsibility. We need a government willing to legislate real safeguards, not tinker with voluntary guidelines and endless reviews—not gestures.

The Greens have been clear about what meaningful reform looks like: having cooling-off periods to stop the revolving door; banning firms who make dirty political donations; having an independent regulator in the consulting sector; and rebuilding a strong, independent, well-resourced public sector. Instead, these government responses send a message to consulting firms that business will continue as usual, even when the status quo has failed. Well, meaningful reform would have upset powerful interests! And that's what we must do if we're going to see the real change that these reviews ask for.