The Department of Finance made the comment in answer to a series of questions about the government's use of casual and temporary workers through labour hire agencies.

The Newcastle Herald asked a series of questions about the government's use of labour hire, especially in relation to the changes to industrial relations (IR) laws being proposed by the Attorney General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter.

But the government's response made no reference to these issues. Nor did it respond to questions asking whether there was an element of self interest in the proposed laws, given that the government could be liable for a substantial proportion of the estimated $39 billion that could be owed to casuals across the company if recent "casuals" class action cases were upheld in the High Court.

After noting that a website referred to by the Herald - contracts.disclosurelo.gs - was not government run, the department said: "The use of temporary personnel, where appropriate is an efficient way to keep the overall cost of government administration low when the business need to access relevant skills, expertise or additional support is temporary or the expertise and skills are more efficiently obtained and maintained in a dedicated private sector business."

On data accessed from the AusTender website, the department said: "The contract values on AusTender represent the total maximum value of each contract over its life, including where contracts span multiple years. AusTender data does not reflect annual expenditure nor does it reflect the number of contractors."

To clarify, the Herald did not say this was the case. We used AusTender figures to calculate an estimated total over the two years that the vast majority of contracts listed for 2020 pertained to.

THE federal government appears to be the largest user of labour hire in Australia, with its own online records showing more than $3 billion worth of contracts for "temporary personnel services" in the past two years alone.

Such temporary contracts are at the heart of some of the changes in industrial relations law unveiled yesterday in Canberra by the Attorney General and Industrial Relations Minister, Christian Porter.

Problems with the contracts were alerted to the government in 2018 when injured former Mount Arthur mine worker Simon Turner became the lead claimant in a class action over alleged underpayment by the Chandler Macleod Group, a firm contracting to mine owner BHP.

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Chandler Macleod is one of a number of Australian labour hire firms, including Peoplebank, owned by a Japanese firm, Recruit Holdings.

Mr Turner said yesterday that he pointed out at his very first meeting with Mr Porter's office that the "federal government was a major user of labour hire firms".

"CMG and Peoplebank and Recruit and all its companies have multiple contracts with the federal government in virtually every department and agency," Mr Turner said.

"You can look them up on the AusTender homepage and on another webpage called contracts.disclosurelo.gs that uses AusTender material released by the Department of Finance".

"Chandler Macleod is in court for alleged wage theft at the moment, and if they get done for that, well, you can't have the government doing business with them, can you? But if they regularise all of this through the changes Christian Porter wants to bring in, all that problem goes away as far as the government is concerned."

One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts said he understood Chandlers had 114 labour hire contracts with the government in the past three years alone.

"Casuals are popular in government because they are able to be terminated or relocated on short notice or no notice," Senator Roberts said.

He said Chandler Macleod provided casual workers to the Australian Tax Office, the Department of Defence, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Digital Transformation Agency, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Australian Electoral Commission, the Department of Human Services, NDIS and the Department of Health as well as the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of the Environment and Energy, Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and many more.

"This government is in bed with big business and cares little for casuals or for the small business sector," Senator Roberts said. "When they are talking flexibility, it is for big employers not employees."

The Newcastle Herald asked Mr Porter's office for comment. They referred us to the Minister for Finance, Simon Birmingham, but his office was unable to respond by deadline.

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