The Grattan Institute has released a new report, entitled The rise of megaprojects: counting the costs. The report slams Australia’s infrastructure selection processes, which too often choose large trophy projects over higher returning smaller ones, and tends to experience large cost blowouts:
Below is the overview of the report, alongside key charts:
Australian governments are fast-tracking their transport projects, hoping for an infrastructure-led recovery from the pandemic-induced recession. But those ‘infrastructure pipelines’ are constipated by megaprojects that are too slow to be effective stimulus and prone to mammoth cost overruns. Governments should act now to set current projects on a sounder basis, and take steps to avoid ending up here again.
