Chris Bowen must resign over Snowy Hydro 2.0 budget blowout

Statement

In February this year, Energy Minister Chris Bowen declared that Snowy 2.0 was “back on track.”

But the release this evening of Snowy Hydro Ltd’s overdue cost reassessment shows that this project has blown out to a staggering $25 billion under Chris Bowen.

If a CEO oversaw such maladministration, a board would have no choice but to sack them.

Chris Bowen should apologise to Australian taxpayers for this enormous cost blowout and resign.

If Chris Bowen won’t resign, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should sack him.

The Government’s decision to release this major report under the cover of darkness is a cynical attempt to detract from legitimate scrutiny. It is clear why they have done this.

Chris Bowen changed the funding model of this project to a cost-plus model.

This change meant that the Australian taxpayer carried all the risk. Sadly, this has materialised into a bill amounting to billions of dollars.

Instead of fixing Snowy 2.0, Chris Bowen has been focused on his presidency of an overseas climate conference, spending millions of taxpayer money on a Net Zero world tour.

Whatever Chris Bowen touches, turns into a complete mess.

  • He hasn’t delivered a $275 cut to power bills.
  • The Cheaper Home Batteries Program has blown out from $2.3 billion to $8.5 billion, and the government has allowed the scheme to be invaded by fraudsters;
  • Not a single offshore wind project has been completed;
  • The cost of the Capacity Investment Scheme is being kept secret, six mystery projects have fallen over, and only a single project has been completed;
  • Rewiring the Nation has blown out by at least one billion dollars;
  • Millions have been spent on three collapsed hydrogen hubs, but apparently he didn’t ‘buy the hype’;
  • Forcing Australians to pay through their energy bills to rollout EV chargers;
  • Got rolled over his data centre renewables mandate; and
  • Destroying regional communities, infrastructure and the environment through his disastrous poles and wires mega projects.

The Government’s decision to change Snowy’s contract model and give the unions free reign has been a complete disaster.

The Auditor-General’s recent report into Snowy 2.0 found that, under Labor, management of the project has only been “partly effective,” resulting in an “increasing risk” to overall cost and delivery.

By contrast, under the Coalition, the Auditor-General found that early implementation of Snowy 2.0 was “effective”, with the project’s budget “tracking in line with planned expenditure.”

Enough is enough. Chris Bowen should apologise to the Australian taxpayer and resign; if he doesn’t, he should be sacked.

ENDS

Media contact: Phil Connole – 0417 063 605