The National Archives engages a consultant when the required expertise is either not available within the organisation, or not available without diverting resources from other higher-priority tasks. In accordance with procurement guidelines, consultants are selected by advertisement, panel arrangements or selective tendering.

The main areas for which consultants were engaged during the year were auditing and reporting tasks, the design and construction of exhibits, and models for implementing the Archives' Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies.

A list of consultancies for 2005–06 is appended to the annual report.