TasPorts’ Bell Bay shiploader faces two-year delay and $5m+ budget blowout
A $15 million woodchip shiploader project has blown out by more than $5 million and faces a two-year delay, forcing TasPorts to seek extra funding.
A new woodchip shiploader at Bell Bay will be delivered two years late and significantly over budget, a parliamentary committee has heard.
TasPorts CEO Anthony Donald said the cost of the project has increased by at least 33 per cent and the port operator would be seeking to increase the budget.
The shiploader was originally budgeted at $15m. It is currently expected to be completed in June 2028.
Under questioning by MLC Rosemary Armitage, Mr Donald told Government Business Enterprise Committee hearings on Tuesday that the increase would be more than $5m, but would not specify the exact amount.
“We are very clear around the need for an increase in budget - the change in budget has been recently approved by our board and this week we will be writing to the shareholder to advise the shareholder and request approval for the increase in the budget allocation which ... we need to do that when the sum exceeds $5m,” he said.
“With that regard, our adjusted forecast completion date, or practical completion date, is June 2028 and we realise that that is two years later than we were planning.”
The Committee said the current shiploader – which was installed in the early 1990s – is unreliable and doesn’t suit newer, larger ships.
Mr Donald said there had been a series of reasons for delays to the upgrade.
“The partner being selected to work through us, through the initial planning and investigation process, went into receivership, and so that created some challenges for us,” he said.
“We continued to work with their partner and got to a suitable outcome.
“The second delay is associated with increases to the required budget, which has come as a result of the tender process, which we have implemented.”
He said speeding the project up would be expensive.
“One of the things that can be considered is acceleration of construction and that always comes with additional costs,” he said.
The committee also heard TasPorts had ramped up its Employee Assistance Program to provide counselling to staff after criticism of the company’s role in the Devonport port upgrade fiasco.
“A lot of our people went through some challenging periods associated with that. Our people are very proud about what we do and how we do it, and took a lot of that to heart,” he said.
“And so we took a decision to bring the EAP on-site to make it more accessible.”
Mr Donald said the depth of feeling had been revealed by staff engagement surveys.
“It was perhaps not great looking at the numbers, it was pretty terrible feeling certainly as the CEO of the organisation,” he told the committee.
“I completely take responsibility for how people were feeling.”
Originally published as TasPorts’ Bell Bay shiploader faces two-year delay and $5m+ budget blowout
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