The Federal Court has been on a buying spree for transcription services.
The Aus Tender website shows five new contracts for “contingency” transcription services with various suppliers based in Queensland, Victoria, NSW and the ACT. They are mostly Australian-owned and managed businesses.
Each contract is for $1 million for a period of about six months to October 30, 2026.
Scribefire Pty Ltd, Hamilton Central, Qld
Legal Transcripts Pty Ltd, Melbourne
Epic Australia Pty Ltd, Melbourne
APT Transcriptions Pty Ltd, Sydney
Then there are three other new contracts, for temporary personnel staff – three-month employment contracts totalling $1.93 million.
1 and One Pty Ltd, Canberra, $709,830
HOBRAN Recruitment Pty Ltd, Melbourne, $636,875.99
Manpower Services (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney, $584,010
All of this is temporary, until something big and permanent is pulled out of the hat.
On an annualised basis, the contracted transcript services pan out at $10 million and if you extrapolate the temporary staff contracts that works out at just shy of $8 million pa.
At around $18 million a year that looks to be cheaper than the VIQ “Solutions” contract with the Canucks, who couldn’t manage to keep their show afloat Down Under.
VIQ transcribers were paid between $66,000 and $73,000 a year, depending on their seniority.
We’ve done some back-of-the-napkin calculations. Under the new regime, if each transcriber was paid generously at, say, $104,000 a year, including superannuation, then at an annualised rate of between $17.8m-$18m, the Federal Court could have a battalion of at least 150 full-time transcribers with money to spare for technicians, team leaders, and extras.
Maybe this is what Senator David Shoebridge had in mind when he said transcribing court proceedings was a public service that should be managed by the public service.