Life on the West Island -Tackling consultavirus

Norfolk Islanders are very well aware of the pandemic which has afflicted the Island for the past decade. Of course, it’s not the ‘flu or Covid 19. Democracy and the Island way of life have been all but destroyed by a much more invidious and pervasive threat – consultavirus.

Although it has been commonplace on the West Island for many years, we are just beginning to grasp the scope and dangers of this deadly infection. Almost every arm of national, state and local government is in its grip, as it throttles the life out of our democratic institutions, just as it greatly enriches its amoral practitioners. Our public services have been hollowed out, and in their place we have ubiquitous consultants to advise on every facet of public life, from national economic policy to what weedicides we can spray on our farms and gardens.

All of this has taken place under the cover of an umbrella of neoliberal economic policies, which dictate that the private sector is both more cost-effective and efficient at developing and implementing policies for the public good. This is both a calculated lie and a transparently ineffective approach.

As Norfolk Islanders can attest from dire experience, the use of ill-informed but superbly self-confident off-island consultants has had disastrous and very costly effects on almost every facet of community life. Then to rub in the insult, the Commonwealth claims to have spent millions of dollars “on Norfolk Island.” In fact, they have spent those megabucks on paying dozens of consultants to write reports of dubious quality - and the money paid has stayed very firmly in the consultants’ bulging hip pockets and very definitely not on Norfolk Island.

No doubt our First Nations friends can attest to similar false claims about moneys said to be spent on their welfare, health and education – most of which has never left the tight circle of highly remunerated consultants and their sycophants in Canberra.

This week has brought more news of abuses by large consulting firms, which have billed the public for work never done, have deliberately inflated their costs and have usurped the roles of senior public servants and ministers in order to manipulate public policy to the benefit of themselves and their private sector clients. One huge company gained access to confidential Tax Office plans to clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion – then sold that information to its private sector customers to help them design schemes to minimise their tax payments. Over a decade, another consultancy operation has milked the Defence Department of almost $4 billion – that’s $4,000,000,000 - for policy and technical advice which has apparently resulted in huge cost blowouts, manufacturing delays and equipment failures – all at taxpayers’ expense.

At last, elected politicians and the general public on the West Island are realising the extent of the consultavirus crisis and are demanding action to bring it to an end. But how?

One eminent independent economist has come up with some suggestions. Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics at The University of Canberra, has developed what he calls A three-point plan to untangle the public service from consultants.

In developing his proposal, Bartos is cognisant of Richard Mulgan’s expert analysis of why public servants like using consultants:

• they allow governments to bury advice they don’t like;

• they help persuade ministers who distrust the public service. This is especially important with Coalition ministers; and

• they maintain a revolving door for public servants to leave their job, collect their super and continue working on the same issues.

Bartos says that there is a fourth, more venal, reason – the millions of dollars consultants spend each year entertaining public servants. To overcome this destructive and self-serving culture, Bartos has developed his three-point reform plan:

1. End the free lunches

One measure would be for departments to ban their staff from accepting gifts and hospitality from consulting firms. If that is regarded as too much of an imposition, departments could publish all such gifts on their websites, disclosing the names of recipients and the value of what was received. That would at least make what happens more open.

2. Stop insider hiring

Another would be to prohibit public servants from obtaining employment in a consulting firm with which their former department does business. This could be done either through “non-compete” clauses (common in the private sector) or through departments excluding firms that employ former departmental staff from tenders. A reasonable time limit – for example between three and five years – could apply.

3. Tender internally first

Commonwealth procurement rules could be amended to require departments, before calling for tenders from outside the public service, to advertise internally for public servants to do the work. The work would then only be sent out to a consultant if no public servant could be found to do it. Who knows, that might even encourage some former public servants to return from consulting back to their old jobs. Getting senior public servants to want to use their own staff instead of consultants might even be an unintended benefit of the current scandals.

Perhaps a fourth step which could be added is the desperate need to shut down the revolving door for ministers and their advisers, who spend much time (and public money) in office smoothing the way for their post-political careers as highly paid private consultants.

While these plans might sound like common sense, they would be resisted vigorously by the huge consultancy companies and the senior public officials who flit in and out of both roles. But, if they are implemented in full and enforced, they could well stop consultavirus in its tracks. What do you think?