Albo says every secretary conscious of consultant use

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Prime minister Anthony Albanese said every secretary was conscious of consultant use, when he had them over for dinner earlier in the week.

Speaking on Nine radio with Ben Fordham, Albanese said the government should not be contracting out its advice, noticing a decline in public service capacity.

“I had dinner on Monday night at the Lodge, with the secretaries of every department. They are all conscious about it,” Albanese said.

The list of every secretary who would have been at the dinner includes PM&C’s Glyn Davis, outgoing DAFF secretary Andrew Metcalfe, AGD’s Katherine Jones, DCCEEW’s David Fredericks, Defence’s Greg Moriarty, Education’s Tony Cook, DEWR’s Natalie James, Finance’s Jenny Wilkinson, DFAT’s Jan Adams, newcomer Heath and Aged Care secretary Blair Comley (on his first day), Home Affairs’ Michael Pezzullo, DISR’s Meghan Quinn, Infrastructure’s Jim Betts, Social Service’s Ray Griggs, Treasury’s Steven Kennedy, and DVA’s Alison Frame.

“I think the robodebt scandal highlights some issues with politics, but also there are some issues with public servants there,” the prime minister continued on the radio.

“But we need to be able to have a capacity to ask the public service for advice and to get it direct from the public service.

“There has been a culture developed where any question gets referred off to one of these consultants and we need to do better.”

Albanese added that people previously public servants “get rissoled out of the public service”.

“They then are essentially then still giving advice to the government earning twice as much and getting fees to consultancies on top of that,” the prime minister said.

“Now public service is an honourable profession. We need to honour it. We need to enrich it and we need to make sure that government can get the right advice.”

Since winning the election over a year ago, restoring the capacity of the public service has been a priority for the government as part of its APS Reform agenda.

The recent PwC scandal and the senate inquiry into the government’s use of consultancies have put the issue back into the mainstream.

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