Smallest partner intake in over a decade for Deloitte’s Australian arm

Big Four professional services firm Deloitte has made a small number of mid-year partnership promotions, with its overall partner count dropping by more than 100 over the past twelve months.

Not so long ago the runt of the local litter, Deloitte last year pocketed $2.8 billion in revenues to surpass PwC as Australia’s largest accounting and consulting firm, its march to the top albeit aided by an ‘own-goal’ from the latter.

That ascendancy however, built on the back of an early tilt towards consulting and digital advisory in place of ‘legacy’ Big Four accounting and audit services, has coincided with a significant downturn in demand for consulting.

Much has already been written on the subject, with each of the Big Four admitting as much through their various strategic manoeuvres, largely away from management and towards tech advisory. As a stark, plain-paper reminder though, one only needs to look at the partnership data, to get a true sense of the damage to the local consulting industry brought about by multiple headwinds.

Under the previous government, Australia rose to become the world’s biggest spender on consulting per capita. A few things have happened since then. The up and down of the Covid-19 crisis, followed by persistent inflation and other economic dramas, both locally and globally, and a new and since returned government determined to curtail its advisory outlay.

At the peak of the good times, Deloitte and its fellow Big Four brethren would tout the number of its mid-year partner promotions online and via press releases, a practice which has now largely dried up. In 2021, Deloitte’s consulting wing alone made 35 partnership promotions, equating to roughly half of its mid-year intake across all divisions.

29 new partners

Now, the firm is talking about 29 internal partner promotions, non-equity, across all divisions and throughout the financial year, via the back pages of the Australian Financial Review. The AFR notes that all up, the 35 new partners admitted across the entirety of the 2025 financial year is the smallest number in more than a decade, back when Deloitte was practically at the bottom of the pile.

Deloitte has always fudged its figures in a way, compared to its cousins, with roughly half of its ‘partners’ on an income and bonuses rather than getting a slice of the profit pie. Still, the firm’s overall partner headcount has dropped from around 1,020 last year to somewhere closer to the 900-mark, with the likes of BDO and Alvarez & Marsal capitalising. Rennie just picked off another few.

All of Deloitte’s 29 new partner promotees are non-equity, according to the AFR, and more than half of those are in the Audit and Tax & Legal domains, with seven elevated within the firm’s Technology & Transformation division and five in Strategy, Risk & Transactions. Six of the cohort were recruited from other firms, with most brought on or promoted as partners more than six months ago.

While former CEO Adam Powick is likely sitting on a beach somewhere exotic, newly-installed Deloitte chief executive Joanne Gorton spun the news as such, hidden in the backwaters of Deloitte’s website: “A big congratulations to you all! Becoming a partner is a truly significant career milestone – one that recognises your expertise, leadership and unwavering commitment to our clients, our people, and living our values.”

“You’ve each consistently shown an innovative and collaborative spirit and a passion for making a difference. The diverse experiences and perspectives you bring not only strengthen our team but help us better reflect the clients and communities we serve. I remember the day I became a partner… and I was so overcome with joy and emotion of what that moment meant.”