The Ord River Irrigation Scheme that aims to help develop farming in Australia's north has been sharply criticised by WA's auditor general over $114 million in taxpayer cost blowouts, time delays and a lack of planning and governance.
The WA government's 2009 announcement of a $415 million, two-year state and federal co-funded expansion and development of the scheme ended up costing $529 million and took seven years after no costings were initially done.
As well, far less land than originally expected is being farmed.
The blame for that fell to the Chinese-owned developer Kimberley Agricultural Investments, which was awarded 8000ha by the WA government but was currently farming mainly chia on just 1600ha after originally proposing large sugar developments.
WA's government, which is experiencing significant fiscal issues including a record budget deficit and debt tipped to hit $39 billion, needed to learn several lessons from the project before the Ord was further developed or similar projects were considered, auditor general Colin Murphy said.
Visions of developing Australia's sparsely populated north for agriculture around the Ord River have been around for more than a century but have struggled to become reality because they were uneconomic.
This year the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was set up to administer a $5 billion federal government loan scheme.
"There were no detailed costings to support the decision by the state to fund the project," Mr Murphy said in his report.
"Inadequate planning and costings at the initial stages of the project resulted in time delays and budget overruns.
"Limited planning will always place pressure on timelines and finances, which is the case here."
Governance arrangements were often ineffective and significant local and Aboriginal employment and training was created during construction but had not been sustained, he said.
Opposition treasury spokesman Ben Wyatt slammed the government for spending so much money without costings or plans to measure the socio-economic outcomes, especially for East Kimberley Aboriginals, that had been used to justify the scheme.
Regional Development Minister Terry Redman and several government departments involved defended the project as successful socio-economically.
"You have only got to walk around the streets and see what is happening on the ground to see the economic and social benefits that it is bringing to that community," he said.
