It sounds like a simple question, but Jeremy Cordeaux turned it into a devastating one on this week’s Court of Public Opinion. Can anyone name a single government project in Australian history that came in on budget? He’d searched for one that morning and come up empty-handed.
Twenty Million, Delivered At One Hundred And Twenty
His flagship example was the North Sydney Olympic pool. Budgeted at roughly $20 million, it reopened — by his account — having cost about $120 million. Six times the original estimate, for a community swimming pool. The final bill was the sort of money a substantial piece of infrastructure ought to require.
A single blowout might be forgivable. Jeremy’s argument was that this isn’t an exception at all — it’s the standard.
Snowy 2.0’s Ballooning Bill
To show the scale of the problem, he pointed to Snowy 2.0. Sold to the public at around $2 billion, its estimated cost has, in his telling, marched steadily upward — $12 billion, then $20 billion, and now heading, he cautioned, toward something nearer $50 billion. A flagship national scheme, pitched at one figure and delivered at a vast multiple of it.
When the distance between promise and delivery grows that large, Jeremy contended, the first number was never a genuine estimate — it was marketing.
The Missing Checks
What drove Jeremy’s frustration was the absence of consequences. A private company running projects six or twenty times over budget would simply fold. In government, the overrun arrives, a fresh allocation is found, and everyone moves on. Where, he asked, are the safeguards meant to stop a $20 million job becoming a $120 million one?
That they seem missing is the real worry. The issue isn’t the occasional surprise cost — it’s that enormous blowouts have become routine, with no one held to account for them.
It’s Your Money
At bottom sits Jeremy’s recurring point: this is the public’s money. Every billion swallowed by a blowout is a billion not spent on services, or not left with households already under pressure.
His challenge doubles as an invitation to listeners. Name one that came in on budget. Until somebody can, he argued, the habit of promising low and delivering high will keep draining the public purse — one pool, one tunnel, one mega-project at a time.
Listen To The Full Episode
Catch the complete Garage edition of The Court of Public Opinion, recorded live around the dining room table.
Watch The Full Episode
The Court of Public Opinion streams live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ACST), right here at jeremycordeaux.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app, and join the conversation with your calls and comments.
