Mr. Birney questions the Minister's commitment to a large project without proper costings. The Minister defends the decision, citing preliminary costings, escalation, and changes in technical design requirements as reasons for cost increases.

AnsweredQoN 562Legislative Assembly
Asked
22 September 2005
Portfolio
Planning and Infrastructure

QuestionView source ↗

I have a supplementary question. How on earth can the minister commit to a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars without first doing the proper costings? Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : The minister should be able to answer the question. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN

AnswerView source ↗

We had preliminary costings. In finalising the plan, as very often happens, there were increases attributed to the factors detailed by the Leader of the Opposition. Also, if the Leader of the Opposition had fully assimilated the answer he was provided with yesterday, he would have seen that there was a very large component of escalation. There are also changes in technical design requirements of national standards. The $110 million was a result of a number of different factors that came into play in that last year. It is a fairly standard way of dealing with projects like this.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : The minister should be able to answer the question. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: We had preliminary costings. In finalising the plan, as very often happens, there were increases attributed to the factors detailed by the Leader of the Opposition. Also, if the Leader of the Opposition had fully assimilated the answer he was provided with yesterday, he would have seen that there was a very large component of escalation. There are also changes in technical design requirements of national standards. The $110 million was a result of a number of different factors that came into play in that last year. It is a fairly standard way of dealing with projects like this.
The SPEAKER : The minister should be able to answer the question. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: We had preliminary costings. In finalising the plan, as very often happens, there were increases attributed to the factors detailed by the Leader of the Opposition. Also, if the Leader of the Opposition had fully assimilated the answer he was provided with yesterday, he would have seen that there was a very large component of escalation. There are also changes in technical design requirements of national standards. The $110 million was a result of a number of different factors that came into play in that last year. It is a fairly standard way of dealing with projects like this.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: We had preliminary costings. In finalising the plan, as very often happens, there were increases attributed to the factors detailed by the Leader of the Opposition. Also, if the Leader of the Opposition had fully assimilated the answer he was provided with yesterday, he would have seen that there was a very large component of escalation. There are also changes in technical design requirements of national standards. The $110 million was a result of a number of different factors that came into play in that last year. It is a fairly standard way of dealing with projects like this.
We had preliminary costings. In finalising the plan, as very often happens, there were increases attributed to the factors detailed by the Leader of the Opposition. Also, if the Leader of the Opposition had fully assimilated the answer he was provided with yesterday, he would have seen that there was a very large component of escalation. There are also changes in technical design requirements of national standards. The $110 million was a result of a number of different factors that came into play in that last year. It is a fairly standard way of dealing with projects like this.

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