Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of the ANAO's audit of the Australian government's commitment to the Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop East project. There is a sickness in the Victorian Labor Party and a sickness at the federal Labor Party level too. It's a sickness that seems to affect all Labor governments, because all Labor governments right around the country believe that taxpayer money is not your money, not money that you earned and not money that you struggled for; it's their money to do with whatever they choose, no matter how irresponsible that commitment may be.

This sickness is particularly acute when it comes to infrastructure. There is no better example of this than the Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop, the subject of the Auditor-General's report that's been tabled in this chamber today. This report, combined with the report that was previously released by the Victorian Auditor-General, shows irrefutably and so clearly that Labor doesn't understand productivity and doesn't understand using a business case to analyse investment or it doesn't care that it doesn't use those foundational tools of making good decisions that have a fiduciary duty to those whose taxpayer dollars they are spending. It shows that Minister King is just as derelict in her duty to spend taxpayer dollars wisely as her Victorian counterparts, and that is quite a standard, indeed.

Let me go to a couple of the key points that are contained within the report. In August 2022, the Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office released a cost estimate that indicated that the cost to build the Suburban Rail Loop East would be $36.5 billion and the cost to build and operate SRL East and North over 50 years is going to be—wait for it—an eye-watering $200 billion. You'd hope that a government that was willing to commit $200 billion to a project had done a thorough cost-benefit analysis, but in September 2022 the Victorian Auditor-General released an audit report on major transport infrastructure project business cases that considered four Victorian government transport infrastructure business cases, including the Suburban Rail Loop. What did it find? That report stated—and it's quoted in the Commonwealth Auditor-General report—that:

The business case DoT and SRLA—

Department of Transport and Suburban Rail Loop Authority—

provided to the government for the SRL program—

wait for it—

did not support informed investment decisions.

That is an extraordinary revelation.

It went on to say:

The business case only analysed part of the program and did not fully meet DTF's—

the Department of Treasury and Finance—

guidance requirements.

DTF has provided substantial advice to the government on the SRL program since 2019. However, it is yet to complete the assessment of the business case required under its HVHR—

high-value high-risk—

project assurance framework to give the government confidence in its deliverability.

Confidence in its deliverability? We have committed $2.2 billion to this. It also stated that the department 'did not demonstrate the economic rationale for the entire project'. So there's no economic rationale for a $2.2 billion spend and commitment that Anthony Albanese made to his mate Dan Andrews. That's unbelievable.

Furthermore, the department's confirmed that there was no plan to conduct a business case. When questioned, the Victorian auditor was told they had no plans to do so. Even more damning, the Victorian report found that the benefit-cost ratio of the Suburban Rail Loop was 0.51 when calculated in line with the Department of Treasury and Finance's guidelines, but the Victorian government claimed it was one to 1.7. So they have been entirely dishonest. This is a project that the federal government and Catherine King decided to commit $2.2 billion to in the 2022-23 October budget.

The Commonwealth Auditor-General's report states: 'The minister stated in a media interview that the department would conduct a merit review on all election commitments over $5 million and that the projects that don't stack up would not proceed.' There is no evidence of the approach the department planned to undertake for the merit review process across election commitments.

Minister King has failed in her duty here, and the auditor's report could not be clearer. The decision must be made to cancel this project. Cancel this project today. (Time expired)