Work on Australian energy and climate policy was outsourced to consultancy firm McKinsey as the government department said it did not have the ‘technical capacity’.Work on Australian energy and climate policy was outsourced to consultancy firm McKinsey as the government department said it did not have the ‘technical capacity’.Consultancy firm McKinsey was paid $1.
According to the firm’s website, McKinsey helps oil and gas companies “accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth” and “create distinctive outcomes across the energy value chain and in every region”. Guardian Australia has been told the firm disclosed its private sector work, but it is not known which clients were listed.
“The work supplemented the department’s existing internal capability and supported internal capability development through on-the-job knowledge transfer.”The Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who sat on two both committees, said the type of McKinsey’s private sector clients raised a number of concerns around conflicts of interest.
Polly Hemming, the director of the Australia Institute’s climate and energy program, said it was “alarming that McKinsey was relied on to ‘guide’ the development of Australia’s climate policy”.