Beattie and Bligh - how many more gaffes ...

Excerpt from Courier Mail editorial:

How many more gaffes?

22 May 2007

Most of us can empathise with a State Government grappling with the logistics of completing such an ambitious project as the Western Corridor Recycled Water Pipeline.

It is an unprecedented mission of herculean engineering proportions.

But readers will still roll their eyes at a State Government that has overseen the digging up, near Esk, of 800m of freshly laid pipes.

By any measure the error – apparently due to inadequate bedding materials – constitutes a wanton waste of money and, more unfortunately, time for a project already that can ill afford either. Infrastructure Minister Anna Bligh asserts, in her Government's defence, that such exhumations are "standard practice".

It is indeed credible that such isolated setbacks are part and parcel of any heavy construction, and we could forgive the Government this gaffe if it were a genuine one-off.

But delays in the construction of this and other infrastructure projects are hardly isolated; rather they are commonplace.

Before this, for example, we heard the Government admit that 1000 pipes sit on a Wollongong dock awaiting tests for Australian standards. We wonder what excuse will next be offered.

It is perhaps most disappointing that Ms Bligh and Premier Peter Beattie are happy to obfuscate the truth as to the extent of construction delays.

As only 33km of the 400km of Western Corridor pipeline have been set down, Queenslanders have lost patience with a Government that, on an almost daily basis, advances yet more excuses. Residents in the state's southeast would much prefer ministers to come clean and detail all known and anticipated difficulties with infrastructure construction, together with the release of revised, realistic completion dates.

To be honest today with the very taxpayers whose money the Government expends will allow Mr Beattie tomorrow to gain substantially more political kudos, particularly if projects are completed before schedule and under budget.

Attempts to the gild the lily might previously have attained for the Government some short-term breathing space but, clearly, voters no longer believe the litany of excuses now so often trotted out.

We do not blame the Government for the lack of rainfall. But we can censure this administration – and its predecessors – for failing to prepare adequately for this calamity.

This Government, after all, was plainly cognisant of three facts: the region is prone to drought; no new dams have been constructed in the past two decades; and 1500 people each week migrate to Queensland to strain an already creaking infrastructure.

When the drought finally breaks and the current crisis has passed, let us hope public administrators – politicians and bureaucrats alike – will have learnt not only better water management strategies but also better policy making generally. With proper planning and expenditure, infrastructure crises need never arise again.

See - Courier Mail - how many nore gaffes?