The Federal Government has slammed accounting giant PwC for leaking confidential Treasury information. 

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers says PwC staff committed a “shocking breach of trust” after information obtained while advising the government on measures to combat tax avoidance was given to PwC clients. 

Dr Chalmers says the PwC partners shared secret information with clients and prospective clients, putting at risk the established practice of government consulting business experts when developing policy.

The Treasurer said he was “absolutely furious, absolutely ropeable” about the conduct. 

“This is a shocking breach of trust, an appalling breach of trust,” he said.

“And as a government that wants to be consultative where we can, it puts that sort of consultation at risk. It puts the quality of economic decision-making and policymaking at risk as well.”

He vowed to put in place recommendations that were put aside by the previous Coalition government to beef up the powers of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) to police the nation’s tax advisers.

The TPB terminated the registration of PwC’s former head of international tax, Peter Collins, as a tax agent after an investigation showed he shared secret information about the government’s tax plans with other staff at PwC .

PwC also failed to regulate other partners and staff who knew the confidential information was going to be used to help clients sidestep new tax laws and push offers to new clients. The firm has been ordered to train relevant partners and staff on how to handle conflicts of interest.

The Treasurer has called for an investigation into whether the PwC breaches were a one-off or part of a pattern of behaviour.

“We want consultation to lead to better policy, not to lead to more profits for the people who are helping us with the consultation,” he said.

“There is no consultation without trust, and we want to be able to consult in a meaningful way changes to the tax system are in prospect ... and [the] actions that we’ve seen alleged and reported cut across that.”