Water projects' $2.4b blowout
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By Ainsley Pavey
May 18, 2008
QUEENSLAND’S top water projects are facing a massive cost blowout of more than $2.4 billion, and the final bill is likely to be much higher.
With residents in the southeast bracing for big water price rises over the next five years, Government documents show costs have risen more than 61 per cent in the 10 major “drought-proofing” projects.
Water and Natural Resources Minister Craig Wallace also admits that the cost to taxpayers could spiral even more, with the final bill “impossible to predict”.
The blowout wipes away any complacency the Government may have had over its revenue earnings, buoyed by mining industry predictions that state income from the resources boom would double to $2.5 billion in the next year.
An analysis of State Government documents shows price tags rose from an original total of $3.9 billion for the 10 major water projects to more than $6.3 billion.
The major rises occurred on the Southern Regional Pipeline, Gold Coast Desalination Plant, Wyaralong Dam, Western Corridor Recycled Water Pipeline, and the Northern Pipeline Interconnector.
Costs also skyrocketed outside the southeast on projects including the raising of the Eden Bann Weir and construction of Rookwood Weir, both near Rockhampton, and building the Connors River Dam and Nathan Dam, in central Queensland.
Infrastructure and Planning Minister, Deputy Premier Paul Lucas said the $9 billion southeast Queensland water grid remains on time and on budget.
Mr Lucas denied there had been a $2.4 billion blowout.
He says the original costs were based on labour and constructions costs at the time – some dating back three years.
“So it’s not comparing apples with apples,” he said.
State Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said residents should brace for even higher water price increases.
“Queenslanders know the Bligh Government spent almost a decade twiddling their thumbs and only started work on new water infrastructure in the last two years when dam levels plummeted,” Mr Springborg said.
“Now taxpayers’ money is going down the drain and all Queenslanders are having to pay the price through higher than necessary water bills.
“Many of the regional water projects the Bligh Labor Government has promised to build won’t even be started for another three or four years, so it is highly likely the budgets for these projects will blow out even more.”
Mr Wallace said the regional dam and pipeline projects were only in their early stages and accurate cost predictions were impossible.
“It is not possible to give accurate costings yet. When these projects are put out to tender, the final cost will depend on factors such as the cost of raw materials and activity in the construction industry, nationally and internationally – factors that cannot be known until we get closer to construction,” he said.
“It is impossible to accurately know final costs until much closer to the tendering stage for the project.”
stevem
Tugun desalination project inquiry starts
16 MAR 2008
THE Gold Coast desalination plant is rapidly nearing completion but taxpayers will foot the bill for a belated parliamentary inquiry into the need for the $1.1 billion project.
In what has been branded a farce, the state’s Public Works Committee has launched the inquiry less than six months before the Tugun plant is due to begin pumping its first drinkable water.
State MPs, who earn up to $15,000 a year extra for sitting on the committee, will inquire into the necessity of the project and whether it is suitable for its purpose.
It comes after almost two years of work and hundreds of millions of dollars in expenditure on the desalination plant, the glamour project in the $9 billion southeast Queensland water grid.
The inquiry follows a Public Works Committee investigation into Suncorp Stadium – four years after it was built.
The seven-member committee, which is dominated by Government MPs, has launched the desalination plant inquiry against the backdrop of highly-visible progress on the infrastructure, including a huge ocean drilling rig off Tugun.
Senior Government ministers including Premier Anna Bligh and her predecessor Peter Beattie have been regular visitors to the plant over the past 18 months.
Public concerns about the plant’s financial and environmental costs were rejected, but the Public Works Committee will inquire into both.
The committee will also examine procurement methods and construction performance, long after tenders were awarded and with work well advanced.
Gold Coast Liberal MP Jann Stuckey, whose electorate takes in the desalination plant, said the inquiry was farcical.
“The horse has well and truly bolted as far as public input is concerned,” she said.
“It’s a joke that people are being given an opportunity to comment now that the desal plant is nearly finished, when they weren’t given that opportunity before.”
But committee chair, Springwood Labor MP Barbara Stone, denied it was too late to make changes to the desalination plant.
“It’s one of the best opportunities for people to have an input,” she said.
“Who’s to say that there may be something in there (the desalination plant) that can’t be changed.”
Ms Stone said the stadium inquiry had resulted in changes to improve pedestrian safety.
She earns an extra $14,805 a year for chairing the committee, on top of her backbencher’s salary of $126,560.
Other committee members receive an extra $7583 a year for their roles. The committee includes controversial Nationals MP Kev Lingard, who skipped Parliament last year to play rugby in France.
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State MPs, who earn up to $15,000 a year extra for sitting on the committee, will inquire into the necessity of the project and whether it is suitable for its purpose.
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Public concerns about the plant's financial and environmental costs were rejected, but the Public Works Committee will inquire into both.
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"It's one of the best opportunities for people to have an input," she [Barbara Stone] said.
And there was I, thinking that you investigate the feasibiity of a project before you start it. Rolling Eyes Ditto for public consultation. Evil or Very Mad
Quote:
But committee chair, Springwood Labor MP Barbara Stone, denied it was too late to make changes to the desalination plant.
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"Who's to say that there may be something in there (the desalination plant) that can't be changed."
Who's to say - pigs might fly, too. It's actually extremely difficult and expensive to make changes to an engineering project once it's started, let alone when it's nearly finished.