Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will get to that. GRMPA said it would cost between $500,000 and $1.5 million. They said, ‘But let’s throw in another $500,000 because it might go to $2 million.’ Well, $200 million later the cost is still going northwards. I have extracted every last ounce I can get from the Treasurer and from the minister to keep paying. The cost estimates were either a lie, at the best, or incompetence at the very worst. They went to the government and said, ‘Let’s put this program forward; it is going to cost between $500,000 and $2 million,’ and the cost actually came to $200 million—or $187 million, depending on whose figures you are looking at—and it is still going northward. Senator McLucas, if you did that in private enterprise you would be sacked on the spot. If you had an overrun of $200 million, or if you said to the government or to the boss, ‘I think it is going to cost this,’ but it cost 100 times that, you would be sacked on the spot.