The NSW government undertook a costly, ineffective and “unnecessarily complex” seven-year journey to set up a controversial transport entity for a short-term budget benefit which has inadvertently created a multibillion-dollar financial obligation for future governments.

The state government also claimed budget benefits of the Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) before the body was legislated, which turned out to be incorrect, while the agencies involved were over-reliant on consultants who “were used repeatedly to provide advice on the same topic”, according to a scathing report into TAHE by NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford.