The ACTU has accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of outsourcing its policymaking to big business, in what it calls ''a grievous failure of leadership''.

Writing in Fairfax's Sunday newspapers, president Ged Kearney says the government has established some 40 reviews of government spending since coming to office, as a Trojan horse for its true privatisation agenda.

Ged Kearney. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

''The Coalition are not taking ownership of decision-making but instead outsourcing it to their big business friends,'' Ms Kearney said.

''It is a grievous failure of leadership to give big business a free-for-all with exclusive rights to advise the government to the exclusion of all other sections of the community.'' Ms Kearney said appointing Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd as head of the Commission of Audit, which will recommend wide-ranging cuts to government spending, predetermines the audit's outcome.

Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann have left it up to the audit commissioners, who include former senator Amanda Vanstone and former Finance and Treasury department heads Peter Boxall and Tony Cole, to rule on potential conflicts of interest. A Commission of Audit spokesman said the commissioners were ''too busy at the moment'' to respond to questions.