Australian Government Consulting
Creating an in-house consulting capability to reduce over-reliance on external consultants is an Australian Government commitment.
From late 2023, Australian Government Consulting will provide a new source of high-quality management consulting services for the Australian Public Service. This will support Government priorities quickly and at a lower cost than external firms, while strengthening internal APS capabilities.
Policy and service development is the core business of the APS. Bringing core work back into the APS will strengthen the integrity of public policymaking, build capability and save money.
AGC will benefit the public service through 3 related functions:
- delivering core strategic consulting projects
- strengthening APS capability through consulting practitioner skillset transfer and leveraging existing APS capability through a Specialist Network
- supporting agencies to achieve better value when engaging external consultants.
AGC will apply a rigorous, structured problem-solving methodology combining the best of public sector expertise and private sector approaches to quickly bring clarity to a client’s challenges.
Clients will have the opportunity to practise and implement in-house consulting methodologies through a collaborative approach to project delivery. Over time, the tested approaches to capability uplift can be rolled out across the APS.
The AGC’s Specialist Network of existing APS specialist services also allows experts to be seconded into project teams, bringing relevant expertise together on a particular problem.
The Australian Government has committed $10.9 million over 2 years from July 2023 to create the in-house consulting capability for the APS.
See also
Australian Government (n.d.) Albanese Government’s APS Reform agenda, PM&C website, https://ministers.pmc.gov.au/gallagher/2022/albanese-governments-aps-reform-agenda, accessed 27 July 2023.