Leaving Victorians cold

In commemoration of his 3000 days in office, former Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews will have a bronze statue erected of him in the grounds of the state government offices in central Melbourne. The cost has been estimated at $100,000. Will it blow out, just like almost every other project his government oversaw?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13897113/Dan-Andrews-immortalised-bronze-statue-Melbourne.html

Looking after the pennies and the pounds

The miserly frugal Scots can be relied upon to deliver a cost effective Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2026. Victoria, Australia was the original host, but had to relinquish them, citing unforseen cost blowouts. Glasgow is planning to offset part of the cost of staging the event by using the millions of dollars in compensation that the Victorian government had to pay to the Commonwealth Games Federation. 

"Tickets, please."

Daniel Andrews, the current Premier of the Australian state of Victoria has a very high opinion of himself, as his government's grandiose election promises partially attest, such as building the biggest hospital in Australia, as reported in the pictured newspaper article, but not even he is capable of time travel, which is the only conceivable way to make retrospective election promises. 

The annoying know it all who nobody talks to at parties

Former Premier of Victoria, John Cain (1982-1990) has died. Television news obituaries were mostly accurate, except for one minor detail. They credited him with introducing Sunday retail trading in the state, but this is not correct. His government introduced reforms permitting retail trading on Saturday afternoons, whereas they previously closed in the early afternoon. Later state governments fully deregulated trading hours.

Razor gang

It's election time again. The Labor Party often resorts to caricaturing the Liberal Party as heartless bean counters, who have little regard for the human cost of their spending cuts, whilst the Liberals like to slam Labor as reckless spenders. This mock scratch card, produced by the Trades Hall Council, is an attempt to persuade voters of the dire consequences for Victoria of not voting Labor. They would have you believe that health, education, and workplace safety will all suffer. 

A harsh analysis of this issue would argue that if it wasn't for cost blowouts on major projects, the Liberals would not need state to cut funding for these services when they hold government.

Observers have recently warned of potential cost blowouts on major infrastructure projects. This will potentially cause budget problems for the next Victorian government. 

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/west-gate-tunnel-stand-off-to-blow-out-costs-and-delays-opposition-20180611-p4zktz.html

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/victorias-building-bonanza-risks-cost-blowout/news-story/70c3de4390a52941b602ea67558a16a0

Even if these projects are not mismanaged, they often cost more than necessary. Those with long memories will remember that the previous Victorian Labor government rejected the offer of federal government funding for the 2002 Melbourne Cricket Ground redevelopment, because it would not accept its conditions.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/mcg-funding-fallout-20020606-gdu9zb.html

According to the Auditor General, it is also very likely that the total cost of the current level crossing removal project will be much higher than initially estimated. 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/level-crossing-removal-program-poor-value-for-money-auditorgeneral-andrew-greaves-20171214-h04ed0.html

Controversially, it also chose to build the Eastlink road project as a tollway instead of a freeway, rejecting federal government funding for the project. 

Vulnerability

Victoria is the first state in Australia to legalize voluntary euthanasia. A previous Victorian Labor government legalized late term abortion. This means that Victoria now has state sanctioned killing from the womb to the grave.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-29/euthanasia-passes-parliament-in-victoria/9205472

The fine art of procrastination

Flinders Street Station

Melbourne's landmark Flinders Street Station is being extensively restored and refurbished. This project was first mooted as long ago as 1990, for the city's ill-fated bid for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Successive state governments dragged their feet over the project ever since, and now it's finally happening. When it isn't involved in radical social engineering, the Andrews government is also investing heavily in major infrastructure projects. Better late than never.

Road to nowhere

The Victorian Auditor General's Office is an independent body charged with providing oversight of the Victorian government's handling of the state's finances. Today it released its report into the scrapping of the East West Link toll road.

The report summary reads as follows:

"This audit examined whether the state had effectively managed the East West Link (EWL) project by assessing the total costs of the project, appropriateness of advice supporting key project decisions and the lessons for future major projects. The audit included 10 government agencies.

The EWL project was terminated in June 2015 with more than $1.1 billion paid, or expected to be paid, by the state for little tangible benefit. This cost includes expenditure on the planning, development, procurement and termination of the project and will be partially offset by future proceeds from the sale of properties acquired for the project which the Department of Treasury & Finance estimates at $320 million.

The audit found that the EWL business case did not provide a sound basis for the government’s decision to commit to the investment and that key decisions during the project planning, development and procurement phases were driven by an overriding sense of urgency to sign the contract before the November 2014 state election.

Advice to government in the lead up to signing the contract did not sufficiently assess the benefits of delaying contract signing to mitigate risks posed by the unresolved legal challenge to the project planning approval decision. Signing the contract in these circumstances was imprudent and exposed the state to significant cost and risk.

The amount payable by the state under the termination settlement was substantially lower than the cost of terminating under the project contract. However the decision to terminate was made without full consideration of the merits to completing the project.

Over the life of this costly and complex project, advice to government did not always meet the expected standard of being frank and fearless. This highlights a risk to the integrity of public administration that needs to be addressed. The report makes recommendations to the Department of Treasury & Finance to provide guidance for development and delivery of major projects and for the Department of Premier & Cabinet to emphasise requirements for frank and fearless advice from the public sector." 

One thing is clear. Neither the former or current Victorian state governments handled this project well. The road will eventually need to be built. When it is built, it will probably cost more than what it did had construction proceeded as planned.  

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-09/auditor-general-reports-on-east-west-link-costs/7012618

http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/reports_and_publications/latest_reports/2015-16/20151209-east-west-link.aspx