Evans, Steve: Huge Australian War Memorial building project delays fuel doubt

Steve Evans

‘Huge Australian War Memorial building project delays fuel doubt‘, Canberra Times, 26 May 2023; pdf from our subscription

Notes the massive reduction in equity injection from government to the Memorial in this year’s Budget compared with the Forward Estimate in the October 2022 Budget. The Memorial says timing of projects such as the Memorial’s redevelopment program is always flexible along the way but the project is overall on time and on budget; Honest History is sceptical.

The evidence can be found in successive editions of ‘Table 5 Departmental capital budget statement’ of the Memorial section of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS) for these two Budgets. The Honest History table below illustrates the point:

Despite what looks like slippage above, the words at Section 3.1.2 of the PBS ‘Explanatory notes and analysis of budgeted financial statements’ are unchanged from the October 2022 Budget to the May 2023 Budget: ‘The timeframe for delivery of the project remains unchanged’.

26 May 2023