Summary: The PwC tax leak scandal has sparked calls for a deeper examination of the Australian government’s increasing reliance on external consultants and the potential conflicts of interest. In 2015, PwC’s senior international tax partner, Peter Collins, allegedly served as a double agent, helping major tech firms bypass tax laws he was assisting the government to create. When this emerged, PwC Australia CEO, Tom Seymour, initially portrayed it as an isolated incident. However, internal PwC emails subsequently showed that many staff, including Seymour, were aware of the information. Geoffrey Watson, SC, a director of the Centre for Public Integrity, has described the situation as the privatisation of government by stealth. The scandal raises significant questions about the integrity and transparency of the public sector and consultancy relationships in Australia. Read more
The above summary comes from The Saturday Paper, was written by Martin McKenzie-Murray, and can be found here.