Cairns Marine Precinct Common User Facility funding was never enough: Warren Entsch
One of the Cairns Common User Facility’s earliest proponents is claiming the “misled” budget for the project was an “election political play” while noting his opposition to the funds promised.
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A blockbuster $446m blowout on a critical infrastructure project is no surprise to Member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, who says the Cairns Common User Facility was underfunded before it even started.
Mr Entsch claims Federal Labor “wedged” the previous state government into delivering the project for $360m by making an undervalued commitment at the last federal election.
“If you go back and look at my statements from 2022, I was always said there hasn’t been enough money put aside, you’re never going to do this for $300m,” he said of the initial commitment, which later increased to $360m.
It comes as new state Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg on Wednesday unveiled the latest planning for the facility showed it would cost $826m to complete, despite major works not yet having started.
Mr Entsch said he was not defending the previous state government, but said the disparity between the budgeted $360m and revised figure of $826m was not a surprise.
He said the funding commitments in the lead up to the May 2022 election were made prior to the September 2022 completion of the Port of Cairns masterplan.
“There have been no formal costings or any engineering completed for the identified location that the government talks about (for the CUF), and the advice I have suggests that the cost will be greater than $600m, compared to the $300 million set aside,” Mr Entsch told the parliament in November 2022.
Mr Entsch claimed Federal Labor’s 2022 commitment “came out of nowhere”.
“I suspect the federal government has manipulated this, they’ve conned the state into doing it for political gain, there’s no question about it.
“Now I had been asking for the last state government to release the engineering and costings, but they sat on it for three years, they never went to the feds to ask for that additional funding, and I believe the bulk of this funding should be delivered by the federal government.
“I haven’t had a chance to meet with the new state government but my message to them is ‘Don’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater,’ this facility is crucial to our region.”
Labor senator Nita Green who blasted the Cairns Regional Council earlier this year for not being forthcoming over its cost increase for the water security project, said she had not been made aware of any cost increases in relation to the CUF by the former state government.
“Our government is willing to work constructively with the state government, noting the revised cost of the project has not been shared with the Australian Government to date,” she said.
“Our government committed $180m to this project, and that remains on the table.
“Warren Entsch is correct in the fact that he, and the former Federal Government that he was a member of, did not support the project – despite the value it would bring to our region.”
While Mr Entsch was the project’s earliest proponent, the Coalition did not make an election pledge in 2022 towards the CUF.
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Originally published as Cairns Marine Precinct Common User Facility funding was never enough: Warren Entsch
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