Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Department of Treasury and Finance

Budget papers 2022–23

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (17:24): My matter for reports today concerns the state budget, which has been put on the list by a number of people, but I want to particularly draw attention to the projects and the cost blowouts that have occurred and have come to light in this budget. It is clear that the West Gate Tunnel and the massive blowout there of $4.7 billion is increasingly causing trouble for the community. We are paying the tolls even though the project is going to be years late. The Metro Tunnel was originally promised at $9 billion and later at $11 billion, and it is now very much north of that. It is at least $3 billion, maybe $3.36 billion, over its original starting. Frankston Hospital was another one that came to light in this budget. It is a $562 million hospital, a good project, but it is now at $1.118 billion. That is a $556 million blowout—a 99 per cent blowout in the cost of that project. Good projects have been mismanaged by this government. These are projects that have not been kept on track, projects where waste has occurred and projects that the government ought to have scoped properly and got on track from the start and kept on track, kept on budget and kept on time.

The Footscray Hospital is another one—a $503 million blowout to $1.998 billion, so up from $1.495 billion to $1.998 billion. That is a $503 million blowout—a cool half-billion-dollar blowout. It rolls off the tongue, but that is an enormous amount of money to be wasted on a project that ought to have been kept on track and a project that ought to have been kept to its original costings. It ought to have been scoped properly at the start. These projects have huge impacts. The heart hospital is also well known. In fact the opposition, then the government, announced this in 2014 at $150 million. We had it carefully costed. The government changed the project. Although their initial costing was also $150 million, it is now going to cost $577 million—a blowout of $427 million on a project that is more than four years late.

This is what we are seeing around the state, these huge cost blowouts. The fire upgrade on the city loop went from $151.74 million to a current $468.94 million. That is a $317.2 million blowout. The Murray Basin rail project—we know about that project and the huge blowouts there. With two-fifths of the project completed it is already $226.7 million over budget, and the project has actually delivered slower rail. It is a damaged project that actually recycled rail from 1913—old sections of rail track. That is how desperate they became in the management of this project, and it is only two-fifths complete. The Mordialloc bypass was a Liberal project in 2014. It was very well understood and was pushed by us strongly. The state government lifted the price from $300 million to $375 million, but you know what? They delivered it at $519.9 million—a $219.4 million blowout, a huge blowout.

These are projects that should have been kept on track and should have been kept on budget. This government cannot be trusted with money, and it cannot be trusted with projects. We have said that these projects need to be held in check. There needs to be a proper audit of these projects, and we have said if we are elected to government in November we will audit every one of these major projects over $100 million. No-one knows, for example, with the level crossing removals how much they have all individually cost. Even though more than 50 level crossings have been completed, the state government has never released the costings of any individual group or single project. The community are entitled to know how their taxpayers money is spent. The Auditor-General pointed to the blowouts in level crossings. These are important projects, but they should have been scoped properly, and the budget should have been constrained and kept on track, rather than having these enormous cost blowouts.

These cost blowouts add up to more than $28 billion across the period of this government. There is more than $28 billion in cost blowouts. That is a huge surge of money. We have said we would audit every one of these projects over $100 million. People need to know where the projects are at, and we need to get a grip on them. The community expects taxpayers money to be used wisely, but that is not what Daniel Andrews has said. He has just said, ‘Oh, it’s like a kitchen reno. It can go—blah blah’. Well, I am sorry, it is not. This is taxpayers money, and it deserves to be wisely spent. The opposition has said we need the reintroduction of a strong public works committee that can oversight and get a grip on these major projects and stop the waste. We have got to stop the waste of taxpayers money. It is not acceptable.