Capture — back on track

Claim filed: “put the important project back on track.”
Who: Chris Bowen, 31 August 2023
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/31/snowy-hydro-2-project-scheme-billion-cost-blowout-kosciuszko-national-park
Date on page: 31 August 2023
Publisher: The Guardian
Title: Snowy Hydro 2.0 costs blowout confirmed to be almost $13bn
Captured: 2026-08-14
Method: saved HTML (guardian-2023-08-31.html)

Verbatim (Guardian, Bowen press conference)

We support the new steps being put in place by the new management of Snowy 2.0 to put the important project back on track.

Firstly, this is one of the most complex engineering projects under way anywhere in the world. And it is subject to the same constraints and blowouts that all major infrastructure projects around the world are experiencing. That’s just a fact.

Reset: $12 billion, contingent on completion by end of 2028. Barnes: “robust and sustainable footing,” “clean and reliable storage… for the next 150 years.”

October 2025 — the target missed

abc-2025-10-03.html
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-03/snowy-hydro-cost-blowout-assessment-deliver-project/105775866

Dennis Barnes:

It's become clearer to us that we're not going to achieve the cost target we've set.

Quite a lot of the risks in the project are behind us.

We're pretty comfortable with the timeline.

67 per cent complete. Still December 2028. Fourth TBM bought to get the project “back on track.”

ANAO, June 2026

anao.html
https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/delivery-of-snowy-two-point-zero

In 2023, the project was reset with costs increasing from $6.1 billion to $12 billion. The project’s expenditure as of 31 March 2026 is $11.1 billion.

73% Project completion as of 31 March 2026

Snowy Hydro’s management of the project has been partly effective.

There is no agreed baseline schedule for the project.

Snowy Hydro does not have a robust understanding of the forecast cost to complete of the project.

Until 11 May 2023, Snowy Hydro’s reporting to the shareholder departments assessed the project to be on track in terms of cost and schedule. Separately, management reported emerging delivery pressures…

October 2025 advice to ANAO: “project expenditure was expected to exceed the approved project cost of $12 billion”; additional government support “expected to be required by the end of FY26.”

ABC same day — abc-anao-2026-06-18.html — Bowen’s office: “sensible recommendations”; still deliver it.

What this file does not do

It does not file “sack the minister.” It files “back on track” / $12 billion / December 2028 against an auditor who could not find a baseline and a CEO who had already missed the cost target.