This Month
Victorian taxpayers to be slugged another $1b for Metro Tunnel
The cost of the Melbourne Metro Tunnel has blown out again, this time to $13.48 billion, with the state government blaming unprecedented cost overruns.
- Gus McCubbing
Rail loop is housing, not just infrastructure: Labor
Pollsters say the Victorian government’s more explicit linking of the Suburban Rail Loop to its tackling of the housing crisis is a savvy but overdue political move.
- Gus McCubbing
Minister claims ‘not appropriate’ to hand over rail loop documents
Danny Pearson says it wouldn’t have been right to give SRL documents to the federal government during an audit.
- Gus McCubbing
Scottish city takes Victoria’s discarded 2026 Games (and money)
Glasgow, which was the 2014 host, will run a slim version of the beleaguered event, bankrolled by cancellation fees from Australia.
- Updated
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Exclusive
- Interest rates
Surprise government spending blowout hits $70b
Treasury may have underestimated a state and federal government budget spending splurge by $70 billion, which a string of economists warn will add to inflation.
- Updated
- Michael Read
August
- Exclusive
- Venture capital
Auditors warned against Vic government’s $37m space balloon bet
Auditors expressed “substantial doubt” about the financial viability of a space exploration start-up, a year before Breakthrough Victoria placed a huge bet on the US company.
- Patrick Durkin and Gus McCubbing
Labor’s most indebted state admits it’s reached limit on raising taxes
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas says finding the promised $1.5 billion for the state’s hospitals will be challenging amid intense budget pressures.
- Updated
- Gus McCubbing
- Exclusive
- Venture capital
Start-up founder sues Victoria’s VC fund
The Victorian government’s troubled venture capital fund Breakthrough Victoria faces a multi-million dollar legal battle.
- Patrick Durkin
- Exclusive
- Venture capital
Brumby urged to follow Breakthrough Victoria CEO out the door
The chief executive of the Victorian government’s Breakthrough Victoria fund, Grant Dooley, has resigned and backed an overhaul of the John Brumby-led board.
- Patrick Durkin
Victoria’s budget woes put ABBA plans on ice
However, despite the state’s debt pressures, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce says ABBA Voyage would generate hundreds of millions in revenue for Melbourne.
- Gus McCubbing and Alexander Gow
June
- Opinion
- Bonds
Are state governments on the brink of a debt crisis?
Victoria and Queensland have caught the infrastructure fever from NSW and have super-sized it. But financial discipline is in short supply.
- Tim Hext
Victoria’s $14b Metro Tunnel has been delayed and will cost more
The bill for Melbourne’s long-awaited Metro Tunnel has spiralled past $12.8 billion, in yet another cost blowout for a major Victorian project.
- Gus McCubbing
May
Victoria, South Australia exempt GPs from payroll tax
The Victorian decision represents a backflip by the Allan government that will cost the state budget $10 million a year.
- Gus McCubbing
Governments ‘should report cost blowouts just like companies do’
State governments should be held to the same reporting standards as ASX-listed companies when it comes to major projects, Marion Terrill says.
- Gus McCubbing
Indebted Victoria faces nurse, paramedic strikes over wages
Treasurer Tim Pallas has vowed to stick to his 3 per cent wages policy as he seeks to head off industrial action by nurses and paramedics, and negotiate new pay deals with firefighters and police.
- Updated
- Patrick Durkin
House builders can’t compete with states’ cash splash
In the race for talent and materials in Australia’s construction game, housing has consistently run in second place to the infrastructure sector.
- Michael Bleby
Energy funding chopped under weight of Victoria’s debt
Experts say this week’s state budget shows the Victorian government has prioritised major transport projects over the energy transition.
- Gus McCubbing
- Opinion
- Public service
Why headcount matters when it comes to budgets
As any finance chief will attest, the number of bums on seats tells you most of what you need to know about an organisation’s underlying size and costs.
- Tom Burton
This tree symbolises how Victoria became a financial basket case
After 300 years of withstanding the elements, the River Red Gum in Bulleen forced the North East Link to be redesigned as the cost of the project blows out by billions of dollars.
- Patrick Durkin
Kerry Stokes ‘cannot cop criticism’
Teal MP Zoe Daniel has accused billionaire Kerry Stokes of anti-democratic behaviour after Seven West Media doubled the cost of printing the AFR. Here’s how the day unfolded.
- Updated
- Gus McCubbing
