Mr NATHAN HAGARTY (Leppington) (21:18): Today I provide an update on the long‑promised Carnes Hill Aquatic and Recreation Centre. Unfortunately, it is not the update my community has long hoped for or deserves. For years, families in Carnes Hill, West Hoxton, Hoxton Park, Middleton Grange and surrounding suburbs have been promised this important facility. After being elected in 2023, the New South Wales Government delivered on its part of that promise, providing Liverpool City Council with $53.4 million to deliver the project. After years of planning, changing designs and shifting time frames, construction has still not started. The latest developments raise some very serious concerns. The architectural practice engaged by Liverpool City Council to design the centre, Brewster Hjorth, has entered liquidation. That is particularly concerning because Brewster Hjorth was also the architect engaged for the troubled North Sydney Olympic Pool redevelopment.
North Sydney Council has commenced Supreme Court proceedings against Brewster Hjorth, alleging breach of its design services contract. Those claims remain before the courts and have not yet been determined. Originally estimated at $58 million and expected to reopen in 2022, the North Sydney pool finally reopened last month after eight years, with a forecast completion cost of around $122 million. The steel frame above its indoor 25-metre pool was dismantled after problems with design and construction were identified. The new roof blew off during heavy winds only a month after the pool opened.
The financial consequences extend beyond the project itself. North Sydney Council has acknowledged that the significant funding tied up in the redevelopment placed pressure on its financial position. Ratepayers are now facing a cumulative 52.66 per cent increase in ordinary rates over three years as the council attempts to restore its financial sustainability and address the infrastructure backlog. It is a cautionary tale that Liverpool City Council cannot afford to ignore. I wrote to the CEO of Liverpool City Council on 9 September asking what the liquidation means for the cost and delivery timetable of Carnes Hill and what due diligence the council undertook before appointing Brewster Hjorth, given the very public problems with the North Sydney pool. I have yet to receive a response.
Residents deserve those answers, particularly given that this latest uncertainty comes on top of years of delays, rising costs and a significant reduction in what they were originally promised. In 2023 the council described the $53.4 million funding from the Government as allowing for the immediate delivery of a world-class aquatic and leisure centre. The original funding deed included a 50-metre competition pool. As late as May 2024, the council was still publicly telling residents that that would be delivered, but the numbers simply did not stack up. By October 2024 the council's estimated cost to deliver the original project had climbed to $93 million, while an independent cost estimate put it at more than $100 million—almost double the original funding available. Instead of the facility that residents had been promised, the project was substantially reduced.
Stage one is now just a 25‑metre pool, a learn-to-swim pool and a children's water play area. The promised 50-metre competition pool has been removed. Liverpool City Council's public inquiry subsequently heard evidence about problems with the project's original costing, with the council's CEO, Jason Breton, telling the inquiry that the cost estimation was poor. More than two years after the council said that the detailed design was underway, its project page still lists the design as in progress, the development approval as pending, the construction tender as pending and construction itself as pending. Despite initial claims that construction was supposed to occur between 2024 and 2026, nothing has started. The council's current target is to complete what is left of stage one by the end of 2028.
Unfortunately, Carnes Hill cannot be viewed in isolation. The Middleton Drive extension was originally estimated by the council at $9 million. That has increased by nearly $9 million—an incredible blowout. Then there is Edmondson Avenue in Austral. Despite $58 million being allocated by the Government for stage one in 2022, it has blown out by another $50 million. Years later, the project remains in the phase of land acquisition and design. They are different projects, but residents are entitled to ask why the story sounds so familiar: increasing costs, slipping timelines and a community that continues to wait. My community has waited long enough. Liverpool City Council must provide residents with a clear path forward and finally get on with delivering the Carnes Hill aquatic centre.
Mr STEPHEN BALI (Blacktown) (21:23): I take on the comments from the member for Leppington. It is important to raise this here because I find councils quite often need to be better held to account. Too often, councils go to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal [IPART] saying, "Looking forward, we have these costs or funding deficiencies. We need to raise money to deliver outcomes." Hawkesbury City Council had a $43 million blowout on a swimming pool. The member for Leppington talked about the North Sydney pool, as well as some of the cost blowouts at Liverpool City Council. Councils simply say that the cost estimates did not work, but people in private business with massive cost blowouts cannot just go back to their customers and ask for more money. Councils should be held to account and find out who did the wrong thing, and IPART needs to be held to account to make sure that, before it decides on a rate increase, someone is held accountable for any cost blowouts.
