Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville has told a parliamentary committee she believed the troubled Connections irrigation project was “set up to fail.”
Ms Neville told a Parliamentary Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing the midyear review of the $2billion project had shown momentum was lost, when it was transferred to Goulburn-Murray Water. “In the process of that transfer the project lost 10 months — 10 months — where nothing happened,” Ms Neville said. “Secondly, there was no project delivery model or capacity checked within Goulburn-Murray Water. My view is — and I say this publicly — that it was set up to fail. It was going to fail
“This project got off track and handing it over to Goulburn-Murray Water, without any delivery model, was a big mistake.”
She said G-MW was not in a position to deliver a project of the kind envisaged under Connections, which aimed to upgrade century old irrigation infrastructure, while saving water. In March, G-MW was stripped of its management of the project. Ms Neville said an independent report, by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) had shown there was about $827m left in the budget, slightly more than the amount indicated in the mid-term review.
Nationals Gippsland South MP Danny O’Brien asked whether the project would be finished on time, and on budget.
Ms Neville said the project control group, headed by Mike Walsh, would report back in June. Ms Neville said the PwC report, without the commercial-in-confidence components, would be provided on the website.
Loddon irrigators Chris Harrison and Murray Haw have previously raised concerns about Connections. Mr Haw said the minister’s comments were an acknowledgement there were problems with the project. But he said any reset needed to maintain equity and fairness for 40 per cent of the irrigators, across the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District, who were off the backbone. Mr Harrison said only half his property had been converted to the new. automated irrigation systems. He said it appeared the initial design was set up to fail, as there appeared to be very little planning around it. “It’s a $2b project, with inadequate planning – that’s why it’s in trouble,” Mr Harrison, a mixed farmer, said.
”I believe there were improvements after G-MW took it on, in the early days the waste was signfiicant.” Mr Harrison said the initial assumptions about the number of farmers who would exit the industry were wrong.
“I just hope this government can save it, the worst case scenario is a half-done system,” he said.
At the time of print, Stock & Land had contacted G-MW for comment.
