Tracking cost overruns and delivery failures across Australia's national, state and territory infrastructure portfolio — sourced exclusively from ANAO, VAGO, state audit offices and official government reports.
CPD stands for Continued Prolonged Delays — a general acronym chosen to highlight the core issues of cost overrun and delayed delivery in public infrastructure. Any similarity to the name or acronym of any existing organisation is purely coincidental and is not intended as a reflection on, or reference to, any such body.
| # | Project | State | Sector | Status | Announced | Current Cost | Variance | Delay (wks) | Original Target | Revised / Actual |
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CPD Index methodology: CPD-C (Cost) and CPD-D (Delivery) are each scored 0–100. The cost overrun % contribution to CPD-C is capped at 50 points — schemes with overruns above 100% score the maximum on this component. The combined CPD score is weighted 60% CPD-D and 40% CPD-C. A score of 100 indicates perfect delivery; 0 indicates complete systemic failure. All figures in AUD. Sources: ANAO, VAGO, state audit offices, and official government budget papers.
Australian governments spent A$34 billion more on transport infrastructure than first promised — a 21% average overrun across all projects over A$20m completed since 2001.
Megaprojects (>A$1bn) overran by 30% on average; nearly half exceeded initial costs. Projects announced prematurely accounted for three-quarters of all overruns.
The 2024-25 ANAO Major Projects Report (21 Defence projects) recorded A$37bn in total expenditure with A$37.4bn in cumulative cost overruns and 404 months of aggregate schedule slippage — equivalent to 33 years of collective delay across 21 programmes.
The Hunter Class Frigate programme alone saw its approved budget rise to A$25.9bn, making them the most expensive frigates globally at ~A$8.6bn per vessel.
Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg's megaproject database identifies the "Iron Law of Megaprojects": nine out of ten projects have cost overruns; overruns of 50% are common and over 50% are not uncommon.
Australia's canonical Sydney Opera House ran to a 1,400% cost overrun. Australia's data broadly matches global trends; premature political announcements are the primary amplifier.
Australia's 5-year Major Public Infrastructure Pipeline stands at A$213 billion (2023-24 to 2027-28), down 8% from the prior year as governments manage construction market capacity.
Land transport construction costs increased 51–53% since 2010-11, with as much growth in the 3 years 2020–23 as in the preceding 10 years (Infrastructure Australia, 2024 Market Capacity Report).
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