Queensland’s eye-watering year’s spending on contracts and consultants exposed

What the state government spent on contracts and consultants in a single year could have paid for the centrepiece stadium for the 2032 Games, it can be revealed.

The state government spent $3bn on contracts and consultants in a single year — enough to pay for a centrepiece Olympic Stadium for the 2032 Games.

And the cost of budget blowouts to half a dozen major projects would also be more than enough to pay for the $3.4bn stadium at Victoria Park, and have billions left over.

Premier Steven Miles this week rejected the main recommendation of a major 2032 Games infrastructure review to build the stadium in Brisbane’s inner-city because he “couldn’t justify” spending billions while “Queenslanders are struggling with housing and other costs”.

He also asserted he would rather use the money delivering on “the priorities that Queenslanders have told me they want”.

But the latest Queensland Auditor-General report revealed the state government — despite having nearly 250,000 public servants at a cost of $32.1bn to taxpayers — spent a whopping $3bn on contractors and consultants in the 2022/23 financial year.

This is an increase from $1.9bn spent on consultants and contractors in 2018/19.

Queensland Auditor-General Brendan Worrall asserted the government, in line with the landmark Coaldrake review into public sector accountability, needed effective controls to ensure outsourced work was cost-effective and achieving value-for-money.

The same QAO report also labelled the value of a $717,000 spend by the government to contract Deloitte to write a report used to justify the scrapping an independent Olympic infrastructure body as “questionable”. The body has since been revived by Mr Miles.

A spokeswoman for Mr Miles said “costs for contractors and consultants have increased at the same rate as the increase in funding for our record Big Build of infrastructure”, with the program growing to $17.6bn in 2022/23 in a move that “supported 10,000 jobs”.

Former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk was tasked to complete a Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games venues review. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Mr Miles and his frontbench this week endorsed spending $1.6bn to upgrade QSAC at Nathan, in defiance of a $450,000 taxpayer-funded review he asked former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk to lead.

“I think when you look at it, it is a good value outcome at a time when Queenslanders are struggling with housing costs and other costs. I don’t see how I could have justified pouring another billion dollars into the game’s funding envelope,” Mr Miles said.

The Quirk review warned the QSAC option would provide “no significant legacy benefit” and shouldn’t be used for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The government’s backflip on the Gabba Stadium means taxpayers are out of pocket $6.4m for work done preparing for the demolition and rebuild of the facility.

The government has argued the work would not go to waste as it would be used to inform smaller scope upgrades to the Gabba announced by Mr Miles.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has promised no new stadiums for the 2032 Games would happen under a government he leads.

Aerial images of the Victoria Park stadium that could have been used as the centrepiece of the Brisbane Games. Picture: ARCHIPELAGO

Meanwhile, analysis of state government projects revealed the extra taxpayer cash tipped into a handful of major projects and initiatives to cover cost blowouts would be nearly enough to build two Victoria Park stadiums.

This includes the $2.4bn extra taxpayers were slugged for the state government’s flagship train manufacturing program after the cost of building and maintaining 65 new trains in Maryborough skyrocketed from $7.1bn to $9.5bn in 2023.

The Coomera Connector Stage 1 project, now under construction, also set the state government back $316m more than planned after costs escalated amid a “hot market”.

The price of Cross River Rail — a 10.2 kilometre rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills — also jumped $960m last year amid rising costs.

But the government has also wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on projects or items deemed bad value-for-money.

Mr Worrall last year found the government should have “fully considered” other quarantine options to better ensure value for money for taxpayers before spending $223m building the Wellcamp quarantine facility — an asset now in private hands.

The $223m Wellcamp quarantine facility.

The Auditor-General last year also revealed Queensland Health was set to write off $267.3m in “obsolete inventory” — the bulk of it $195m in expiring rapid antigen tests.

In 2021 the state government also copped criticism for spending $429,800 decking out a swish new office for an Ombudsman that didn’t exist, with the position ultimately binned.

Opposition cost-of-living spokeswoman Deb Frecklington slammed the government for wasting billions of dollars while Queenslanders struggled through a cost-of-living crisis.

“Working Queenslanders are living in tents and cars, while this out-of-touch Labor Government pours our money down the drain,” she said.

“Queenslanders aren’t cash cows.”

“Only the LNP has the right priorities for Queensland’s future and that includes saving you paying for Labor’s failures.”

Originally published as Queensland’s eye-watering year’s spending on contracts and consultants exposed