Transport minister caught out as rail blowout soars to $3.1bn

Mark Bailey has been forced to admit the Gold Coast Faster Rail had blown out by more than $3.1bn only after the astonishing figure was published on a government website.

Queensland Minister for Transport Mark Bailey during question time at Queensland Parliament House in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Transport Minister Mark Bailey has been forced to admit the Gold Coast Faster Rail project had blown out by more than $3.1 billion, only after the astonishing figure was published on a federal government website.

The Palaszczuk government cabinet member has repeatedly refused to provide details about the cost escalation, insisting the full details would be released once negotiations with the Commonwealth had completed.

Mr Bailey said earlier this month the project, originally estimated to cost $2.6 billion, had increased to “a bit more” than $5 billion after details of the project emerged during the federal government’s infrastructure review.

He again refused to reveal the cost to taxpayers when quizzed on Tuesday, insisting it was not “appropriate process”, and said: “I still have not yet received any formal notification from the federal government in relation to the matter.”

But Mr Bailey was stumped when it was revealed the Commonwealth had published an estimated cost on the Department of Infrastructure website, with the cost of the project now estimated at more than $5.75 billion.

The Minister has been forced to admit the cost blowout.

Mr Bailey was forced to admit the figure was correct.

“There’s a formal process that they should have adhered to and they haven’t,” Mr Bailey said.

“They’ve broken faith – that’s a matter for them – I will do my job in terms of the formal processes between different levels of government and I’ll remain committed to what’s a good faith process and if others break that, then that’s a matter for them.”

The awkward development comes ahead of Deputy Premier and Infrastructure Minister Steven Miles leading a delegation of Queensland mayors and industry stakeholders to Canberra to plead with federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King to reconsider cutting road and rail projects.

Mr Miles insisted the collaboration with Canberra was “by and large” better with Labor colleagues in government, despite a series of hiccups, including the stalled development of the 50:50 health funding, the ongoing blame game over the Pinkenba conversion, and now the shock decision to cut major projects.

“Clearly we’re disappointed with how this particular matter has played out,” the Deputy Premier said.

“We hope that we can put our engagement with them on this particular topic back on track.

“We do want to work with them (and) we want to see our road and rail projects funded, delivered at the certainty that they need so that we can build them for the state.”

Mr Bailey admitted “we’ve had challenges with both governments” but insisted “I could not get a single meeting with (the Nationals’) Barnaby Joyce despite him being deputy prime minister and transport minister for two terms”.

Originally published as Transport minister caught out as rail blowout soars to $3.1bn