Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister, for your comments. I guess my concern is that the government has repeatedly noted that there are enormous cost blowouts in infrastructure. We are not talking nickel-and-dime things; we are talking about billions of dollars. The Inland Rail infrastructure was costed originally at $8 billion, and the government has made a significant deal about the fact that it now is estimated to cost over $30 billion. Given the enormous growth in cost blowouts, I don't understand the government saying that its project cost estimates, the work that it's trying to do, couldn't be improved with reference classes and just basically looking at how much we pay for something compared to how much we originally costed it.

Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman has said that the best possible way for us to estimate the cost of infrastructure and big projects going forward is to use that history as information to drive these costings. I don't understand why the government is refusing to ensure that the costs that we have already paid are not put into the system so that we can learn from our past mistakes and make sure that we do not continue to waste government money with cost blowouts. As the government is well aware, we are in a budget constrained environment, a high-inflation environment, and this government has come to parliament saying that they will do things better and they will spend our money wisely. All I am trying to do with these amendments is make sure that the government is actually going to spend their money wisely and make sure that the government is actually ensuring that the costings are accurate and the information is responded to.

To your point on the second point—that there is information that the government wants to hold; that these are decisions of government and this is information that the government wishes to keep private—this is hundreds of billions of dollars of the Australian public's infrastructure. The Australian public has paid for this, and we believe that it is absolutely appropriate to ensure that the Australian public gets the audit of the infrastructure that the Australian public owns and has paid for.

I would like to ask the minister, through the chair, if the government would be willing to support any of my amendments if the questions were put separately.

See this speech in context