Scott Morrison’s $660m ‘congestion-busting’ car park plan savaged

Almost all of the projects in the ‘congestion-busting’ project are in Coalition held or targeted seats, and not based on merit.

Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher. Picture: Getty Images

The Auditor-General has delivered a scathing report over the Morrison government’s administration of the $660m Commuter Car Park Projects fund, finding almost 90 per cent of the funded projects were in targeted or Coalition-held seats and none of the 47 car park projects were chosen by the department.

Established in the 2018-19 budget as part of the Urban Congestion Fund, the commuter car park project was designed to build car parks near urban train stations across the country.

An Australian National Audit Office report on Monday said there was “little evidence” to demonstrate the selection of projects was based on “assessed merit”, which stemmed from a lack of “appropriate engagement” with state and local governments to identify candidate projects.

Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher on Monday committed to implementing all the report’s recommendations, but said it was “normal practice” in the delivery of infrastructure projects for there to be a significant lead time between the announcement of the project and construction commencing.

“The $4.8bn Urban Congestion Fund is one component of our record $110bn 10-year infrastructure investment pipeline … By the end of 2022, 90 per cent of all packages are expected to be completed or under construction.,” he said.

Auditor-General Grant Hehir said the only engagement to occur was by then minister Alan Tudge’s office “with some states” and by MPs or candidates “with some councils”.

“The Minister’s Office advised that it would then go through the spreadsheets with the Prime Minister’s Office and the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, ahead of a related meeting between the Minister Urban Infrastructure and the Prime Minister,” the report said.

The lack of engagement with state and local governments increased the risk the selected projects “would not deliver the desired outcomes at the expected cost to the Australian government”.

Mr Hehir on Monday delivered six recommendations, which included requiring the Department of Infrastructure to “undertake sufficient inquiries” to demonstrate funding candidates are “eligible for approval” before recommendations are made to the Minister.

In addition, the underlying assessment work was found “not to an appropriate standard”.

The audit found only five car parks out of 47 promised have been delivered and only $76.5 million, or 12 per cent of the total funding, has been paid.

Acting opposition infrastructure spokesman Andrews Giles said Mr Tudge, the acting minister who implemented the program, should resign if he could not explain his part in “this appallingly partisan abuse of process”.

“The Prime Minister needs to urgently explain what went on in that meeting and release the spreadsheets shared with his office,” Mr Giles said,

“We’ve had sports rorts, Building Better Regions rorts, female change-room rorts, and now we’ve got car park rorts.”

Parking Australia chief executive Stuart Norman said the report had identified shortfalls in the delivery of the project, and he still had concerns about the fund moving forward.

“While building car parks seems simple they are unique and required specific knowledge and skills set,” Mr Norman said.

“Parking Australia still has concerns that one of the five objectives or principles encouraging innovation is being overlooked when it comes to the delivery of these car parks.”