His company, Kiah, is pushing into the Brisbane market in the wake of the PwC scandal, a second scandal involving KPMG in NSW and then the black eye the industry got over Robodebt.

Also, the market is shrinking, adding another complexity to its push from Canberra to the states. A survey from Source Global Research has forecast consultancies in Australia to grow by 8 per cent this year, down from 10 per cent last year, as the public sector pulls back in the wake of the scandals and reputational damage.

Even so, the survey found the market was worth about $8.7 billion and with the Big Four consultancies now down to three, there is room. In the past five years, the Queensland Government spent about $423 million on consultants, according to the LNP.

However, the LNP has vowed to slash consultancies if it wins the next state election. Opposition leader David Crisafulli has said there was “an ever-growing wall of consultant reports to justify blowout after blowout” of government projects.

But the Government has pointed to how the LNP used consultant reports to justify the sale of Queensland assets when the Newman Government was in power.

Glenn believes the governments are right to scale back, that there is too much use of consultancies and that it had become the easy thing for them to do.

Too often, he said, consultants were used as resourcing or providing fresh bodies, rather than providing expertise.

But Glenn is also critical about how consultancies have evolved, how their advice has been corrupted to fit whatever a government department wants to achieve while Governments have been complicit in unethical behaviours.

He said as far back as the Enron scandal in the US, it was clear that consultants were able to be pushed around by their clients to deliver advice that fitted the company’s goal.

“Robodebt, which was terrible behaviour, also showed that shopping around for advice,” he told In Queensland.

“There’s no courage in the practice of whatever you want I will give you.”

He said all consultants had conflicts of interest.

“Some are so driven by their culture to win at all costs, ethical behaviour is set aside,” Glenn wrote in an opinion piece in The Mandarin.

“It’s too simplistic to say all consultants are bad, or that we won’t use them. That’s self-defeating, denying access to the expertise that you need.  It’s how you handle the conflict, and how you get value from an engagement, that matters.”

He promises Kiah would be different: brave, and that it would give license to its staff to have the courage to tell the truth to clients.

His decision to move into the state government sphere is not a retreat from Canberra but an expansion. Melbourne and Adelaide were also in its sights.

He believes Brisbane could have 50 or 60 staff eventually, but in the beginning consultants from the city may be flown elsewhere to work until capacity is built.

“Brisbane is really entrepreneurial and driven. I went to a business networking forum (recently) and it was one of the best I had been to because people were so engaged,” he said.

“I like to go where I am wanted.

“I also want some of the talent (from here).”

He said he saw no reason why a home-grown advisory industry could not be built and exported, rather than feeding the foreign-owned big players.