Responding to the latest Controller of the Auditor General report criticising the decision-making process that led towards $15.9 billion worth of investment projects to be delivered over the pandemic period, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“It should have been obvious to the then Labour-led Government that rapidly pulling together a bunch of massive infrastructure projects, against advice from officials, was a recipe for disaster. Sadly, it seems that the ministers of the day were more concerned with the glamour of an announcement than they were with ensuring that they would actually receive value-for-money from their investment.

“We could see from the outset that without focused timeframes and transparency measures, the fund was always doomed to fail. Now, more than 3 years later, many of the various projects have blown way over budget and are either still ongoing, haven’t been started, or have been ditched altogether. The dismal rollout of this fund only highlights the outrageous disrespect the previous Government had for taxpayer funds.

“We welcome the Auditor General’s recommendation for Treasury to provide more regular updating on the delivery of major capital spending projects. Given the complete failure from the previous Government to deliver on their infrastructure promises, it is critical that taxpayers can be sure their money is being

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