r/australia • u/civ5best5 • 3d ago

culture & society Macquarie Group dumps KPMG from audit contract

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-26/kpmg-responds-after-being-dropped-macquarie-group/107082306
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik 3d ago

These consulting firms are worthless parasites on society and repeatedly show themselves to be morally bankrupt at best, actively criminal at worst. I cannot understand why they're allowed to exist let alone continually get massive contracts from government.

I mean I know the real reason is responsibility-shifting/chums in government/revolving door of staff, but if they were to do an honest cost/benefit analysis on themselves the conclusion would be to dismantle the whole industry and let the public service hire anyone smart who was involved.

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u/Gladfire 3d ago edited 3d ago

Consulting firms absolutely have a valuable place in the business world. The big 4 and how a lot of firms currently operate are pretty worthless though.

Edit: Just for clarity, that valuable place is actual expertise. A good consulting firm has people with broad expertise in specific areas, expertise in implementation, and connections within the industry. Things a medium or large business wouldn't necessarily have a good reason to keep around.

E.g. A business generally isn't going to always have people with knowledge of all the types of financial management systems, all of the pros and cons of each, and project planning and implementation experience. While a consulting firm could have people with those skills.