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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-18 Daily Xml
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Government Procurement

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General, representing the Treasurer and the Premier in the other place, about government procurement contractors.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: One of the South Australian government's preferred external consulting firms, PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), is embroiled in a massive international tax avoidance scandal after it was revealed that it used secret commonwealth government information gained in 2016 to advise several of its clients how to bypass new tax laws.

Peter Collins, an ex-partner of the firm who was helping federal Treasury and the Australian Tax Office to develop tax law, had shared confidential information with his PwC colleagues. They then advised their clients and prospective clients here and overseas how to sidestep new laws. The ATO says millions of dollars in tax revenue could have been lost had PwC rolled out a tax avoidance scheme it designed using confidential briefings.

The federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is reported to have been ropeable at the action of Mr Collins, a tax partner at PwC, who has since had his practising licence suspended for a paltry two years for those integrity breaches. Ironically, former ATO employee in Adelaide, Richard Boyle, is facing a life sentence for blowing the whistle on the ATO's unethical practices. My question to the Treasurer is:

1. How much worth of work for the South Australian government has been undertaken by PwC since 2016, and for which government departments?

2. What are PwC's current consultancy contracts with the South Australia government, and what are their value?

3. Considering these disturbing integrity revelations, has or will the Treasurer now instruct the Procurement Review Committee to review PwC's position on government procurement panels and remove them from any further government work?

4. Will he also order an integrity review of the other prominent external consulting firms used by government agencies?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:38): I thank the honourable member for his question. I certainly will refer those to the Treasurer in another place and bring back a reply for the member.

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