5.78 The Final Priority List included nine priority projects that the Council had concluded should be considered for Australian Government funding.185 As noted above, seven of the nine priority projects were announced in the May 2009 Budget to receive full or partial funding, with the Budget Papers noting that each of the seven projects had been recommended by the Infrastructure Australia Council for funding. The Budget announcements of projects recommended for funding by the Infrastructure Australia Council were categorised into:
• major rail projects-$3.9 billion over six years. However, one of the five projects186 that were said to have been recommended by Infrastructure Australia (the New South Wales Government's West Metro project) had not been included as a priority project but as a pipeline project such that, at the time of the Budget, Infrastructure Australia had not recommended that it should be considered for funding;
• three road projects. Of these one was the Ipswich Motorway which had not been included as a priority project in the Final Priority List but had been included because Infrastructure Australia had concluded that increased project costs187 could be met through the Building Australia Fund. The other two involved full funding of one priority project (the New South Wales Government's F3 to Branxton Freeway, now referred to as the Hunter Expressway) and partial funding of another New South Wales Government project (the Pacific Highway Corridor); and
• a possible equity contribution of $365 million in 2009-10 in relation to the Gold Coast Light Rail project, subject to negotiations with the project proponents and the establishment of an appropriate equity vehicle.
5.79 As noted at paragraph 5.59, the Pacific Highway Corridor project was included as a priority project late in the process (at the Council's 27 March 2009 meeting). The project was put forward by the New South Wales Government, as part of its October 2008 submission to Infrastructure Australia. This submission proposed completion of the Pacific Highway upgrade between Hexham and the Queensland border. It comprised eight separate projects, with an estimate totaling $6.67 billion. No additional information was provided on the project following the October 2008 submission, with the Office of the Infrastructure Coordinator advising ANAO in February 2010 that it considered that there was sufficient material to make an assessment of the proposal (in December 2008 it was assessed as having a Satisfactory BCR). The Final Priority List did not make any recommendations whether the Corridor project should be funded in stages or, if so, which works were seen as the highest priority.
5.80 Contemporaneous with the Infrastructure Australia process, commencing in January 2009, DITRDLG had sought information from the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority concerning the likely cost and timeframe for delivering the Kempsey Bypass. The Kempsey bypass formed a section of one of the eight projects (the Kempsey to Eungai project) included in the Pacific Highway Upgrade project submitted in October 2008 to Infrastructure Australia by the New South Wales Government, although the submission did not separate out an estimate for the Kempsey bypass. The New South Wales Government submission indicated that construction of two of the eight projects (including the Kempsey to Eungai project) could commence in 2009, with the remainder to be progressively commenced as permitted by resources and progress on land acquisition. The May 2009 Budget included $618 million188 for the Kempsey Bypass.
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185 Infrastructure Australia, National Infrastructure Priorities: Infrastructure for an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future, May 2009, p. 8.
186 Being: $91 million towards preconstruction work on the New South Wales Government's West Metro project; the Victorian Government's Regional Rail Express project-$3.225 billion over six years, and East-West Rail Tunnel project-$40 million over two years; and the South Australian Government's Gawler Rail Line Upgrades project-$293.5 million over five years, and Seaford Rail Extension project- $291.2 million over five years.
187 The Budget Papers stated that the $884 million for this project was to go towards additional works on the construction of eight kilometres of the Ipswich Motorway between Dinmore and Goodna, and 2.5 kilometres between Wacol and Darra; and planning for the Ipswich Motorway between Darra and Rocklea. However, as outlined at paragraph 5.51, Infrastructure Australia's assessment of funding for this project through the Building Australia Fund did not relate to additional works but to funding of an increase in the estimate of the cost to undertake the project.
188 The available information is that the estimate of $618 million in the May 2009 Budget comprised the total estimated out-turn cost less amounts spent on the project prior to 2008-09 and amounts that had been proposed to be spent on the project in 2008-09 (but were not actually spent).