Labour hire firms in Australia supplying workers to understaffed federal agencies are receiving the equivalent to 20% of the government's spending on public service wages, while many of the firms avoid taxes, reports The Canberra Times, citing advocates for tax accountability and justice. Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research senior researcher Claire Parfitt said that labour hire firms should be required to report their tax payments for every country, showing federal agencies how much tax they were paying when deciding whether to award them contracts. Parfitt added that the 20 federal agencies with the highest contracting bills spent more than AUD 6.8 billion (USD 5.0 million) in the last five years on labour hire companies, a figure that reflected government-imposed internal staffing limits on agencies. Parfitt said an analysis of some of the largest labour hire firms showed some, including Adecco and Outsourcing Inc, either paid no tax in Australia or did not report their tax payments. Parfitt urged the government to analyse the companies' tax avoidance schemes and called for rules requiring contractors to report their revenues and tax payments in each country they operate in.

SIA reached out to Adecco and Outsourcing for comment but the companies had not yet responded. Adecco’s 2020 Annual Report states that “The Company reports revenues and pays taxes in the countries where it operates and value is created” In addition, the report states that “The Company does not engage in artificial tax-driven structures and transactions”.