I can't speak to anything that happened after April 2019.
I watched the debate and I think some of it is a false debate that suggests there's a teeter-totter where work would be done by the public service or consultants, as if it's a fixed pie. What I read into the numbers is there's more work to go around and that there is more activity and more projects at a faster pace.
The number of public servants has grown, which is a concern to some people, and the use of external contractors has grown, which is a concern to other people.