4 - Entrenched and Escalating: Policy-Relevant Consulting and Contracting in Australia, 1987–2017

Summary

Chapter 4 on Australia presents a pioneering, quantitative analysis of the summary details of consultancies and other contracts over the past three decades, as these were listed in mandatory reporting systems of the national government. Using text analysis and keyword searches, the chapter focuses on consultancies and other contracts that appeared to be oriented, or at least relevant, to policy matters and programme content, as distinct from ‘neutral’ corporate services. In contrast to a reduction in the level of in-house staffing, it reveals strong long-term growth in spending on these policy-relevant contracts across each of the three decades. It also establishes that this overall pattern of growth was replicated right across Commonwealth departments. In regard to market share on the supply side, it finds a polarized distribution in each of the three decades: a corporate end where a very small proportion of suppliers get much of the spending, and a huge array of sundry operators undertaking very small amounts of work. It argues that the long-term market share of successful consultants and contractors put them in a position to influence many aspects of programme development.