The cost of Victoria’s major projects has blown out by a whopping 11 billion dollars, according to a new report by the state's auditor general. But while the government has described the report's figures as misleading and out of date it couldn't point to any inaccuracies.
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00:00From the North East Link to the Suburban Rail Loop, Victoria is building and building, and
00:08the costs are rising and rising.
00:12A new report by the State Auditor General found the cost of Victoria's 113 major projects
00:17had blown out by an eye-watering $11.7 billion in the past year, with a combined bill of
00:24$146 billion.
00:27Among the projects, the North East Link, which jumped 68% to $26 billion.
00:33The Geelong Convention Centre, which ballooned by 220%.
00:37The Frankston Hospital redevelopment now costed at $1 billion.
00:41And car parks around train stations, which have increased by a staggering 300%.
00:46That's a serious blowout, especially for a state which is projecting to have net debt
00:53of $188 billion.
00:56The report sparking a furious response from the Transport Infrastructure Minister.
01:00Nothing short of ridiculous.
01:01Gross misrepresentation of reality.
01:04Shoddy methodology.
01:06Call the Auditor General shoddy for revealing the true state of the books.
01:11But the Minister couldn't say what the true costs should be.
01:15It's literally been minutes ago that it was tabled in the Parliament, and I'll be going
01:19through that and having a closer look.
01:21We can't continue to have a government that hides every detail from the community, effectively
01:26lying to them about what they're building and how much it's costing.
01:29The report took aim at a lack of transparency, finding public reporting of major projects
01:35was not meaningful, reliable or comprehensive.
01:39It also found there was a failure to properly assess the impact of changes to cost, time
01:44and scope of projects.
01:46What this tells us is that we really do need to have a public infrastructure company.
01:51Any projects that haven't yet been started could perhaps be cancelled or started at a
01:57later date.