Breaking: Budget update

It’s not just the big media outlets that pull all-nighters for the Budget.  Here at POW! we’ve been going through the Budget papers to give you a hot-off-the-press update on where things stand as regards Emu Swamp Dam.

The headline summary is that (see page 63 of Budget Paper No. 2 available here):

deferring funding of $899.5 million over 4 years from the Dungowan Dam and Pipeline, Emu Swamp Dam and Pipeline, Hughenden Irrigation Scheme and Wyangala Dam Wall Raising projects, to be reconsidered once business cases are completed and viable pathways to delivery are determined and assessed

The Department of Water in its Portfolio Budget Statement states that (see page 17 here):

The department will ensure responsible investment in national water infrastructure projects where business cases stack up, environmentally and economically, to ensure water security for communities, industry and the environment.

And in its Water for Australia Plan (see page 3 here) the Department further states:

The government’s commitment to responsible investment also includes the deferral of a small number of water infrastructure projects where there is presently no state, territory or local government partner, no clear pathway to delivery or no strong economic case. These projects may proceed following proper consideration and if they deliver good value to the community. Alternatively other more cost-effective solutions may be considered.

So where does that leave us (or more to the point, where does it leave GBIP and the Council)?  The current business case does not stack up based on the reported total cost following tenders.  Those costs are now more than a year old in a high inflation environment.  The issue of cost overruns has never been addressed, and neither State nor Federal governments have shown any appetite to cover these.  GBIP does not have the land it needs, it does not have the water allocations it needs, and the true cost of its environmental offsets are yet to be properly factored in.

GBIP has had more than a year since the tenders came in to update the business case, and the fact that it has not speaks volumes about the likely impossibility of making an acceptable economic case.

If our Council was prudent it would wait until the new business case is produced.  It would wait until GBIP can show it is viable.  Continuing to waste ratepayers’ money on a project that may never happen needs to stop, now.