Ms Mettam questions the due diligence undertaken before signing a letter of intent with Roberts Co and Webuild for the women's and babies' hospital project, given Roberts Co's administration. The Minister defends the process and accuses the opposition of wanting the project to fail.

AnsweredQoN 107Legislative Assembly
Asked
20 May 2025
Portfolio
Health Infrastructure

QuestionView source ↗

Women's and babies' hospital—Gold-standard
transparency
107. Ms Libby Mettam to the Minister for Health Infrastructure:
(1) Given the government's commitment to a gold
standard of transparency, what due diligence did the government undertake
before signing a letter of intent with the joint venture Roberts Co and Webuild,
and did this identify any concerns regarding the women's and babies' hospital
project?
(2) Given Roberts Co went
into voluntary administration in March, how has the process failed so badly
three months on under this government with the signing of this letter of
intent?

AnswerView source ↗

(1)–(2) I thank the member for the
question. The member is wrong. We have seen from this opposition a deliberate
approach and will for this contract and this project to fail. We have seen it
in the commentary last week. I need it to be on the record that we are in a
live procurement process right now. Negotiations are still underway in terms of
a contract. As we know, the sister company went into administration in March. A
probity auditor obviously then reviewed the process. There have been ongoing
negotiations, and those processes are continuing. Of course, there was a full
process for procurement and evaluation that is done in accordance with that of all
major projects. I have full confidence in that process. I am very confident
that we will get to a stage of making announcements soon regarding the details
of that contract. I want to ensure Western Australians that we are focused on
the delivery of the project and value for Western Australian taxpayers.

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