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Earthworks began on the Burswood peninsula for a controversial $217.5 million racetrack before Labor had even secured an agreement with the nation’s premier car racing organisation, a new report reveals.
An interim report into the development, from the Select Committee into Land Development and Planning, was tabled in parliament on Thursday morning by Liberal MLC Neil Thomson.
The report claimed plans for the transformation of Burswood Park had fallen short of “expected standards of optimality, efficiency, integrity, and priority”.
Several concerns were raised, including that the state government committed millions in public funds and began construction of the racetrack element of the development “before securing any formal commercial agreement with Supercars”.
“Supercars confirmed in writing to the committee that no formal agreement exists,” Thomson told parliament.
“This directly mirrors the failures identified in the Langoulant report. The committee was unable to establish who bears the financial risks if supercars does not proceed.”
The motorsport component of the Burswood redevelopment is also inconsistent with both the Burswood peninsula district structure plan and the Burswood Park 20-year vision, according to the interim report.
“When asked directly how the project was assessed against those frameworks, the director-general of the Office of Major Transport and Infrastructure Delivery told the committee: ‘The scope of the project is based on that election commitment so my job is to deliver an election commitment.’,” Thomson said.
“The committee’s report also raised concerns about consultation process. The government’s official reporting claimed a 76 per cent positive response rate, which was achieved by clustering oppositional feedback and initially preventing negative comments about the racetrack on its online consultation platform.”
He said the report had found “an overwhelming majority of feedback expressed opposition to the motorsport component”.
Thomson said another concern raised in the report was over the “in-principle land swap with Crown” that was “communicated via media release with no direct notification to the committee, despite multiple formal requests throughout the inquiry”.
The deal involves Crown Perth receiving 1.85 hectares of state-owned public land reported to be valued at $16.9 million in exchange for 3.697 hectares last valued at $95 million in 2013.
“No current independent valuation has been publicly released. Crown did not agree to two requests from the committee to give evidence at the public hearing, but gave written evidence,” Thomson said.
“The report recommends that updated independent valuations be publicly released, and the agreement independently is reviewed by the Auditor General before being finalised.”
Lastly, the committee’s report raised “serious concern about the robustness of the business case”.
“The deputy premier and treasurer has publicly cited a benefit-cost ratio of 1.84 – a metric her own department does not use as the primary measure for assessing public value,” Thomson said.
“The more rigorous figure cited by the chief executive of infrastructure WA at parliamentary estimates is approximately 1.13.
“At that margin, a cost blowout of approximately 80 million would render the project economically unviable.”
At an event on Thursday morning, before the report was tabled, Treasurer and Sports Minister Rita Saffioti said the report had always been a “political stunt”.
“We’ve seen the Liberal Party side with the Greens opposing development, so this isn’t their only development they oppose,” she said.
“They oppose infill, new housing projects. This is the Liberal Party and the Greens wanting to attack new projects. I don’t think anything will change.”
Thomson said any characterisation of the report as politically motivated or lacking objectivity were strongly rejected and unfounded.
Saffioti’s office has been contacted for further comment.
Holly Thompson is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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