A report from an Australian Senate committee called for the government to require the Australian Public Service Commission to collect and publish data on the government’s use of contractors, consultants and labour hire workers. It also called on the Department of Finance to regularly publish expenditure data on such workers, including the cost differential between direct employment and external employment.

Australian Senate’s Select Committee on Job Security released the “Second interim report: insecurity in publicly funded jobs” this week.

Among its recommendations, it called for the government to introduce a policy stating that an objective of all public funding for employment, or the provision of goods and services, is to protect and promote secure employment.

Another recommendation called for the government to have a preference for the direct, permanent employment of staff rather than indirect arrangements such as outsourcing or labour hire firms.

“The policy should recognise there is a legitimate role for contracting and subcontracting arrangements in the Australian Government’s supply chain, but that workers engaged under these arrangements are entitled to pay and conditions no less than an employee would receive for the same job,” according to the report.

For more on the report, see this article in The Mandarin.