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Waste

You don't need to allege corruption to find waste. The Auditor General documents it every year in reports that rarely make the evening news. Here's what those reports, and the Government's own accounts, show.

Headline figures

  • $1.6bn: cost growth on 10 major IT projects. Half at least doubled in cost. (OAG 2025)
  • $987m: WA Health payments processed outside its procurement system. (OAG 2025)
  • $462.7m: Housing Authority property additions it couldn't substantiate to the auditor. (same report)
  • $205m+: campaign advertising media buying, Jul 2019 to Dec 2023. The total campaign cost is "not known". (OAG)
  • $28.8m: the expected PTA loss on High Wycombe land written down from about $31m to $2.2m before its transfer to DevelopmentWA. (OAG 2023-24)
  • $51.3m: written off on a single land transfer (Bentley). (OAG 2023-24)

Findings

1. Government IT projects: $2.6bn became $4.2bn+

  • Fact: The OAG reviewed 10 major IT projects. Estimated cost rose from $2.6bn to at least $4.2bn (+$1.6bn, or 62%). Half at least doubled. 8 of the 10 are late, by 4 to 78 months. "Almost $1 billion" is still needed for 3 of them. PTA High-Capacity Signalling accounts for $1.3bn (82%) of the increase. The current cost of the Electronic Medical Record was withheld because procurement is still active (OAG 2025).
  • Fact: This isn't new. PathWest's lab system cost almost $50.5m (+$23.7m) and was 2 years late, and PathWest "could not produce an accurate picture" of what it had spent (OAG 2019). Before 2017, Health's computing contract grew from $44.9m to at least $125m through 79 variations (OAG).
  • Our read: IT blowouts have happened under both major parties. The true cost is often hidden when the decision is made.

2. About $1bn paid outside WA Health's procurement system

  • Fact: In 2025, WA Health entities processed about $987m of payments outside iProcurement. Many went through a "direct payments" pathway, initiated on "a modifiable spreadsheet ... without any mandatory controls which enforced segregation of duties". The OAG said this could "make it very easy for someone to initiate a fraudulent payment". The Department of Health received a qualified controls opinion (OAG 2025 financial audit results).
  • Our read: No fraud has been alleged or found. The issue is that about $1bn moved without a proper approval trail.

3. $462.7m in housing assets the agency couldn't back up

  • Fact: The Housing Authority's 2023-24 audit opinion was qualified because support was not provided for $131.3m of land and buildings additions and $331.4m of buildings under construction. The qualification carried into 2025 (OAG 2025, Appendix 3).
  • Our read: This is a record-keeping failure, not proven loss. But if an agency can't show what it built, the public can't judge value for money.

4. Land shuffled between agencies at a loss

  • Fact: Bentley 360 moved from the Housing Authority to DevelopmentWA at a book value of about $53.95m and a valuation of $2.65m, a write-off of about $51.3m. Davis Park produced a loss of about $27.2m in 2025 (book value $33.3m against $6.1m). The OAG said such practices "should be viewed as deliberately misleading" and that the practice "significantly increases the risk of fraud, corruption or misconduct" (OAG 2023-24; OAG 2025; OAG DevelopmentWA land).
  • Fact: The PTA wrote High Wycombe land down from $31m to $2.2m before transferring it to DevelopmentWA. The Auditor General said this was wrong (fair value about $31.3m) and the PTA restated it. If the transfer goes ahead on the agreed terms, the PTA books a $28.8m loss in 2024-25. The OAG warned that transferring land at reduced values "significantly increases the risk of fraud, corruption or misconduct" and makes DevelopmentWA projects look more profitable than they are (OAG 2023-24).
  • Fact: The OAG's audit of DevelopmentWA land sales (tabled May 2025, covering 2017-22) found one property with a most recent valuation of $800,000 sold for $385,000, with no documented rationale. About half of 1,100 regional stimulus properties did not show compliance with the approved pricing methods (OAG DevelopmentWA land).
  • Our read: These are approved accounting transactions, not proven theft. The quoted words are the Auditor General's. Our concern is that these transfers hide the real cost of land deals from the public.

5. Advertising: no law, and no full tally

  • Fact: State entities spent at least $205m on media buying from Jul 2019 to Dec 2023. That covers media only, so the total cost of campaigns is "not known". Spending rose 66% to $58m in 2023, and the OAG noted the pattern of higher spending before elections has persisted. Post-campaign evaluations were often not done. Unlike NSW, Victoria and the ACT, WA has no government advertising law (OAG).
  • Fact: The Electoral Commission's own 2023-24 report of government advertising spend overstated the total by about $20.8m. It included a $20.79m line for Treasury that came from a Commonwealth report; the correct figure is $38,425. The real 2023-24 total is about $136m across 121 agencies, roughly flat on the year before (WAEC Political Finance Report 2023-24; WAEC statement to The West Australian).
  • Our read: Even the watchdog's numbers on government advertising have been wrong. When spending rises before elections and nobody checks results, it looks like self-promotion paid for by taxpayers.

6. Grants with no outcome measurement

  • Fact: One Road Trauma Trust Account project received $56.7m since 2012-13 with no independent review and no assessment of road-safety outcomes (OAG). Only 2 of 8 entities audited had sound grants practices, and Local Projects Local Jobs election-commitment grants bypassed the usual assessment (OAG Grants Administration). The COVID-19 Relief Fund lacked performance indicators (OAG).
  • Our read: This isn't proof that the money was wasted. But there's no proof of value either.

7. Consultants on a single project

  • Fact: Questions on notice show at least about $4.2m in undisputed payments to Big Four firms on Westport: KPMG about $2.58m via Treasury (Dec 2022 to Jun 2024), plus $1.63m via Transport (PwC $100,193 and Deloitte $1,533,760) (QoN). A Deloitte Public Safety Network Strategy cost $1,094,904 and is kept Cabinet-in-confidence (QoN).
  • Our read: Taxpayers pay for advice they're not allowed to read.

8. Events and overseas offices with weak returns measurement

  • Fact (OAG, 2017): Tourism WA did not use return-on-investment data to allocate resources. Perth Fashion Festival received $3.39m since 2008 but attracted "at most, only 118 inbound visitors" in a year (OAG).
  • Fact: The 2019 review of WA's 8 overseas trade offices found they had no clear performance-management framework or KPIs (review).
  • Fact: The 2025-26 Major Events Fund allocation is $58.8m, part of about $91m for event tourism (Estimates hearing, 1 Jul 2025). The OAG has noted that event details can be withheld as commercially sensitive under s.82 of the Financial Management Act.
  • Our read: These findings are a few years old. We have not yet seen evidence that the problem has been fixed.

9. When controls fail: Perth Children's Hospital

  • Fact: Lead contamination and defects delayed Perth Children's Hospital (due Aug 2015) until 2018. Delay costs to the State were reported at more than $115m, including more than $20m in car-park compensation (ABC).
  • Our read: The project spanned both governments. How much was recovered from the builder has not been published.

10. A cancelled radio deal that cost more

  • Fact: The PTA's Huawei–UGL radio contract, awarded in Jul 2018, was worth $205.7m ($136m build plus about $80m for 5 years' maintenance) (WAtoday, Aug 2018). It was terminated in 2020 after US trade restrictions (WA Govt), followed by a $6.6m settlement. The replacement Nokia contract is worth $327m, $121m more than the Huawei deal (WAtoday, Jun 2022).

11. When controls fail: $27m stolen inside Communities

  • Fact: Former senior Department of Communities officer Paul Whyte stole about $27m through fake invoices. On 19 Nov 2021 he was sentenced to 12 years' jail on 564 corruption and money-laundering charges (ABC, 19 Nov 2021; CCC report).

The cost of government failure (context, not "waste")

  • Fact: The 2024-25 ARSF records a $165m NDIS transition settlement of disputed contributions, and a Stolen Wages class action settlement of up to $180.4m ($76.3m remaining at 30 June 2025) (ARSF 2024-25).
  • Our read: Compensation for wrongs done by the State is owed, and it isn't waste. It is part of the bill when government gets things wrong.

What we'd do: Waste Watch reforms

  • Every IT and capital project over $50m publishes its cost-to-complete every quarter, including the ones in "active procurement".
  • A Government Advertising Act: independent pre-vetting, a pre-election blackout, and the full campaign cost published.
  • No grant program renewed without an independent outcome evaluation.
  • Consultant reports paid for by taxpayers are published within 90 days unless genuinely commercially sensitive.
  • Fund the Auditor General to follow up on every qualified opinion, and require agencies to fix them within 12 months.