Northern Territory Government Wastes Money on Consultants

The Territory Opposition is highly critical of a $140,000 consultancy handed to the former chief executive of the Chief Minister’s Depart, Paul Tyrrell.

Mr Tyrrell will be paid $139 920 to provide advice on ‘Key Management and Facilitation Services’.

“Labor’s love affair with high paid consultants is a disgraceful waste of money,” says Terry Mills, Leader of the Opposition.

“Executive levels of the public service have ballooned under Labor, but still they employ more and more expensive consultants to do jobs that should be done by the public service.

“By my reckoning, taxpayer’s are employing Mr Tyrrell in 4 separate roles that should be handled by executive level public servants already employed by the NT Government.

“Mr Tyrrell collects a consulting fee for being chair of the Australian Railway Corporation, the Waterfront Development Corporation, the Oncology Unit negotiations and now the ‘Key Management and Facilitation Services’.

“The Chief Minister needs to explain why nobody in the vast bureaucracy that he employs is capable of performing these roles.

“In the last year the number of public servants employed by the Territory Government has pushed past the 16,000 mark. That’s a 14% increase in the number of public servants since 2003. To put that into context the Territory’s population has increased by just 7% in that time.

“That’s why this Government has been able to significantly reduce Government debt despite the record tax take.

“What we need is value for money from our public service. Rather than consistently looking outside for advice, we need a public service that is capable of responding to the needs of Government.”

2008-06-27