A consultancy engaged to craft the federal government’s long-term gas roadmap was simultaneously working for the fossil fuel industry without disclosing the clear conflict of interest to Commonwealth officials.
The dual arrangement, revealed by ABC News Business, has ignited fresh questions over the integrity of Canberra’s outsourcing regime and the extent of commercial influence over Australia’s clean-energy transition.
According to the report, the advisory firm was retained by the federal energy department to provide economic modelling and strategic policy input for the nation’s gas framework. At the same time, the consultancy was actively receiving payments from private resources companies with direct financial stakes in domestic gas policy and export approvals.
Undisclosed commercial ties compromise policy drafting
Under Commonwealth procurement rules, external contractors are legally required to identify and declare any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest before undertaking policy advisory work.
ABC News Business reported that the firm failed to notify the department of its concurrent industry contracts, leaving departmental bureaucrats unaware that the independent advice informing government strategy was being produced by advisers actively on the payroll of commercial gas producers.
The revelations cast a shadow over key strategic documents designed to balance domestic supply security, liquefied natural gas export commitments, and the Albanese government's legislated target of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Public service reliance on private consultancies under fire
The episode lands amid heightened national sensitivity surrounding the federal government’s reliance on major professional services firms. Following high-profile integrity breaches across the consulting sector over the past two years, federal parliamentary committees have repeatedly warned that the extensive privatisation of policy drafting risks hollowing out the Australian Public Service while creating structural conflicts of interest.
While the federal government has sought to slash external contractor spending by more than $3 billion and rebuild internal public sector capabilities, private consultants continue to hold substantial portfolios across complex technical domains such as resources and energy infrastructure.
Transparency advocates have long argued that consulting firms routinely operate across regulatory divides, marketing insider understanding of government processes to corporate clients while simultaneously offering external expertise to departments.
Department audits procurement safeguards
Departmental officials are understood to be reviewing the consultancy’s contract compliance, examining whether the non-disclosure violated standard Commonwealth terms and whether any policy conclusions were skewed to favour commercial interests.
Integrity experts note that when commercial conflicts remain concealed, the legal remedies available to the Commonwealth are often limited after funds have been disbursed and strategies published. Calls are now mounting from crossbench parliamentarians for mandatory debarment rules that would exclude non-compliant consultancies from bidding on future public tenders.
Climate groups question fossil fuel influence
The revelation has also drawn sharp criticism from environmental policy groups and energy analysts, who argue that the federal gas strategy already leans too heavily toward prolonging fossil fuel extraction.
With households and manufacturers grappling with elevated domestic energy prices, critics warn that public trust in federal energy market interventions is severely undermined when the analytical foundations of policy are shaped by firms serving the very companies being regulated.