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Case study · Refund reported by the press

Deloitte Australia: a report with invented references

A consulting firm repaid part of its fee after a government report was found to contain invented references and a made-up court quote.

Principles involved

When and where

October 2025

Australia

What happened

In July 2025, Australia’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations published an independent review it had commissioned from Deloitte, under a contract worth about A$440,000. Readers soon found problems: more than a dozen references and footnotes pointed to sources that didn’t exist, and a quote attributed to a Federal Court judge had been made up.

A corrected version, published in October 2025, disclosed that a generative AI tool chain had been used to prepare the report. Deloitte repaid the final instalment of its fee, which the department put at more than A$97,000. Correspondence released later, as reported by Human Resources Director, shows the department also cited Deloitte’s failure to follow its own policy on telling the client about AI use.

What the sources establish

These facts come from press reports of the department’s statements and released correspondence, in The Register, CFO Dive and Human Resources Director. The reports establish the errors, the disclosure and the refund. They don’t establish how the report was checked inside the firm, or who was responsible for each error.

Implications

Invented references look like real ones, and a polished report makes them easy to miss. Opening each source before the report went out would have caught them. Telling the client about AI mattered too: the department raised it along with the errors.

Recommended practice

  1. 01For anything published or sent to a client, open every reference and find the sentence that supports the claim.
  2. 02Tell clients how AI was used when they would want to know, and follow your own organization’s disclosure rules.
  3. 03Plan the checking time into the deadline.

Sources

What each source establishes, and its limits. The practices and recommendations on this page are ours, and the facts come from the sources. See every source we use.

  1. Deloitte refunds Aussie gov after AI fabrications slip into $440K welfare report The Register · October 6, 2025 · News report Reports the invented references and made-up court quote in the report for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the corrected version disclosing AI use, and Deloitte’s agreement to repay the final instalment of its fee. Limits: A news report.
  2. Deloitte refunds over $60K for report with AI errors, Australian government says CFO Dive · October 21, 2025 · News report Reports the department’s statement that the refund was more than A$97,000. Limits: A news report of a government statement.
  3. Deloitte’s AI mess just got worse, and HR should be paying close attention Human Resources Director Australia · November 14, 2025 · News report Reports correspondence released by the department showing it sought A$97,587.11, citing the report’s problems and Deloitte’s failure to follow its own policy on telling the client about AI use. Limits: A news report of released correspondence.

Cite this page

Founderz (2026). Deloitte Australia: a report with invented references. The RUAI Standard, 2026 edition. Developed by Founderz in collaboration with Microsoft. https://responsibleai.founderz.com/toolkit/case-studies/deloitte-report-with-invented-references

Licensed under CC BY 4.0: share and adapt with attribution.