Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a low bar. There will be an opportunity for them to prove us right or wrong.

The ANAO finding was extraordinary. The ANAO found that this decision had cost the Commonwealth $49 million in lost interest earnings. That is $49 million that could have supported women's refuges, that could have supported public transport, that could have supported people on Newstart and that could have provided jobs somewhere. It was lost because of this government's cynical political opportunism. The audit also found that there was poor risk management for the proposed stage 2 of the project and poor documentation across the entire project process from the Commonwealth. This litany of failures might have been understandable if this had been a rolled gold, you-beaut project that was going to deliver massive economic benefits for Victoria and the nation. As I said at the start, this project would actually lose money in terms of economic benefit. For every dollar invested, it would return 45c. This litany of failures will hang as a millstone around this government's neck.

I have a number of questions for the minister and, if he is unable to answer them, I ask that he please take them on notice. First, will the minister apologise for this disgraceful process? Secondly, will the minister apologise for wasting $49 million of taxpayers' funds? Thirdly, will the minister apologise for his government attempting to fund a project that returned 45c in every dollar invested? Fourthly, will the minister apologise for the government sidelining the independent experts, Infrastructure Australia, during this process? Fifthly, will the minister guarantee that this will never happen again under this awful government?

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