Labor has hit back at Premier David Crisafulli’s claims of yet another budget blowout and accused him of putting half a billion dollars at risk by declaring the government’s hand in future negotiations.
Crisafulli on Tuesday said the Miles Labor government secretly signed off on a $494 million Cross River Rail “blowout” just before it entered the pre-election caretaker period.
“Nearly half a billion dollars, and the most damning thing is, it was signed off in September, and no one from the former government thought Queenslanders deserved to know about a $494 million blowout relating to Cross River Rail,” he said.
Then-treasurer Cameron Dick at a Cross River Rail worksite last year.Credit: Matt Dennien
“The union influence from the CFMEU, the culture of cover-ups, the blowouts that will put in jeopardy taxpayers’ money if it hadn’t changed, it’s all deeply disturbing.”
But Deputy Opposition Leader Cameron Dick said the money was a funding envelope set aside in case of project cost overruns in a “high-cost, high-inflation environment”.
“But, of course, governments don’t discuss those funding figures because it jeopardises the negotiations with a major contractor,” the former treasurer said.
“It’s the case with every negotiation – you don’t show your hand publicly because what may happen is you end up costing taxpayers more, and that may very well be the case with what David Crisafulli has done today.”
Crisafulli used the issue to reassure Queenslanders “these projects will occur, and we will change the culture of the way that job sites work”.
“Productivity will return, projects will be delivered, and the biggest risk to that would have been a continuation of a bad government that had pervaded over astronomical blowouts,” he said.
