Chris Bowen has come under fire for refusing to release the full Snowy Hydro 2.0 cost reassessment after the project’s $25 billion price tag was revealed.
A cost review released on Friday by head contractor Webuild revealed Snowy Hydro 2.0 will push towards full commissioning in late 2029.
While the company announced the cost blowout and extended timeframe, the full reassessment report has not been released.
The Senate passed an Order for the Production of Documents requiring the Energy Minister to produce the full report by midday on Monday.
However, the deadline has passed without the reassessment being tabled.
Shadow energy minister Dan Tehan pointed to previous comments Mr Bowen made in May when he promised to release the report when it was available to him.
“When I’ve got it, I’ll release it,” Mr Bowen said on ABC radio.
Mr Tehan lamented the Energy Minister’s failure to release the documents during a press conference on Monday.
“Now I say to Chris Bowen, the time for hiding your failures is over,” the shadow energy minister said.
“You have to be fully transparent about the Snowy Hydro scheme.”
The project, first announced in 2017, was originally pitched as a landmark nation-building investment that would support the electricity grid with long-duration storage.
It was costed at just $2 billion and was originally planned to be running in 2021.
When attempting to defend the cost blowout, Mr Bowen admitted the project’s cost and timeframe could blow out further.
News24 Senior Political Reporter Trudy McIntosh asked Mr Bowen whether he could confirm the current price tag and end date would not blow out further.
“You’re acknowledging it could change,” McIntosh asked the Energy Minister.
He replied: “Absolutely”.
“It’s the best estimate at this point. I’m not here to say that anything is locked in stone when it comes to a project like this.”
He also argued against criticisms that changing from a fixed-price contract to a cost-plus model, which allows a contractor to be reimbursed for certain expenses, in 2023 allowed costs to blow out.
“That contract wasn’t working,” Mr Bowen said.
“The new chief executive came in, the board looked at it (and) the project was sputtering to a halt.
“There was no productivity improvement at all. Not enough was happening. There were constant disputes between the contractor and Snowy Hydro.”
He said Snowy Hydro’s board recommended changing contract types and noted Dennis Barnes, the company’s current CEO, argued the cost blowout would have been worse if the contract was not changed.
“This nonsense idea that somehow, if that (changing contracts) hadn’t happened, the tunnelling wouldn’t be more expensive in 2026 is fantasy,” Mr Bowen said.
News24.com.au approached Mr Bowen for comment.