Consultants 'scandalous waste of money'

Paying $260,000 for specialist advice during the emissions trading scheme (ETS) review is a "scandalous waste of public money", Green Party MP Jeanette Fitzsimons says.

The Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives has confirmed to The Press fees paid to three consultant firms during the eight-month parliamentary select committee review:

PricewaterhouseCoopers: $93,625.56

Frazer Lindstrom: $88,870.94

37 Degrees South: $76,203.71

Under a confidence-and-supply agreement with ACT, the Government put the scheme on hold during the review.

Committee member Fitzsimons said the consultants worked hard and provided good material but the committee had no time to properly consider it.

"It was money wasted – I know the consultants felt that," she said.

"It was a scandalous waste of public money."

Fitzsimons said the committee was a way of marking time while the Government decided what to do, adding: "I regret I put the time into it I did – it was just a waste."

Labour's climate change spokesman Charles Chauvel said the Government preached fiscal responsibility but it was quite prepared to spend money on political deals.

A spokesman for Climate Change Minister Nick Smith said last night the costs should be compared with fees paid during the Labour government's ETS select committee process.

Committee chairman Peter Dunne, of United Future, said members might well not have had time to properly consider the consultants' advice. However, they agreed to the timetable and on each extension to the advisers' contracts.

"All three [firms] did a professional job, a thorough analysis and contributed to a very detailed report."

He rejected claims the review was a waste of time, saying the committee's report was the basis of the Government's subsequent action.

"Since it was presented everyone [the committee members] has run off in completely different directions."

The Government will put the House into urgency next week to try to pass its ETS amendments.