Less than 3 per cent of the Commonwealth's $20 billion external workforce spend was covered by the federal government's flagship policy to reduce public service outsourcing, a scathing audit has revealed.
The narrow definition of core work in the Strategic Commissioning Framework allowed departments and agencies to hit their insourcing targets on paper while overall contractor expenses continued to soar.
Australian National Audit Office's report into framework found the policy's headline success of a $542.3 million reduction against a $527.6 million target in 2024-25 was driven almost entirely from two agencies.
