Supply and employment pressures blow budget for Port Hedland’s Spoilbank Marina

The budget for the State Government’s Spoilbank Marina project in Port Hedland has blown out to $187.5 million, surpassing the former State Government’s 2012 budget for the project by $35 million and Labor’s revised plans by $93.5 million. It has been nearly a decade since Colin Barnett’s Liberal government announced its grand plans for Port Hedland’s waterfront. The Spoilbank Marina was initially budgeted to cost the former State Government and the Town of Port Hedland a combined $152 million and be completed by 2017, but is still under construction. Plans for the marina were revised by the Labor government when it came into power in 2017 and in November 2019 a $94 million draft masterplan was released for public comment. In June 2020, the State Government announced the design had been finalised for the now $121.5 million project. On December 23, 2021, the announcement of SMC Marine winning a $10.6 million contract for the design and construction of marine structures included news the Spoilbank Marina was now a $187.5 million project. A spokesperson for Ports Minister Rita Saffioti said employment, supply and equipment restraints were putting pressure on infrastructure projects across WA. “Due to current project cost estimates being significantly higher than original estimates from 2019, particularly with regard to dredging costs, the Spoilbank Marina capital budget has been revised to $172 million,” the spokesperson said. “We are now also allocating operational costs of $15 million.” The spokesperson said the estimates were based on finalised designs and took into consideration “the challenging technical issues experienced onsite, including tidal factors causing water infiltration”. Pilbara Ports Authority chief executive Roger Johnston said there had been an increase in the cost of labour and materials due to COVID-19. Cost of the Spoilbank Marina “There have also been delays or limited availability of resources and materials, which would include the dredge required for the project and the specialist workers required to work on the dredge,” he said. Shadow ports minister Colin de Grussa said the blowout was systemic of Labor’s mismanagement of major projects. “The Spoilbank Marina was first committed through the Nationals and Royalties for Regions when we were in government and has been long-awaited by the Port Hedland community,” he said. “Labor promised this project would go ahead years ago, yet all we are seeing are delays to its construction and budget blowouts that far exceed what was initially calculated. “This budget blow-out is unsurprising as Labor has exceeded funding allocations for other projects, including their flagship project in Metronet which is costing taxpayers more than $2 billion above Labor’s original budget.”