Consultation on infrastructure bill

Question

Senator HUME: Okay. So Treasury hasn't been asked to cost the implications of this policy. I find this extraordinary, because you were asked to cost and model climate policies. But this is a very significant bill and you haven't been asked to deal with this one yet. Mr White: We don't know about the bill. It's possible that someone else in Treasury has been dealing with this bill. We would have to check. Senator HUME: Okay. This bill would potentially add thousands and thousands of dollars to the cost of infrastructure projects. A similar arrangement was within the Queensland parliament as part of its best-practice industry code. It's better known actually as the CFMEU tax. Is Treasury aware that there is a policy that leads to delays and cost blowouts of potentially up to 30 per cent, according to reports of the Queensland version of this bill, with roughly $17 billion added to their infrastructure costs? If there was a bill out there that replicated the problems that had been experienced in Queensland and added that much to infrastructure, would that not be something that you would expect to come past Treasury's desk before it was introduced? Senator Gallagher: There are a lot of hypotheticals in that. Senator HUME: No. It's a real, live bill in the parliament right now. Senator Gallagher: But you were saying, 'If this happened,' and, 'If the Queensland thing happened, then what's'-you know? Senator HUME: The Queensland thing did happen, Minister. It blew out costs. Senator Gallagher: Yes, I know. But you're asking- Senator HUME: And the bill has the capacity to do the same federally, yet it had already been introduced and Treasury didn't even know about it. Senator Gallagher: That's not the evidence that's been provided-as somebody who seems to verbal evidence. Fiscal Group is saying that they were not consulted, but that does not mean- Senator HUME: Who would be, in Treasury? Senator Gallagher: That does not mean that Treasury were not. We would have to take that on notice.

Answer

See attached response.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000455 BET195 - Consultation on infrastructure bill.pdf (opens in a new tab)