Sinking wreck ‘no more than $10m’

IN the latest twist in the city’s dive site saga, documents obtained from the Australian National Audit Office show the costs to scuttle two warships in the same class as the HMAS Darwin were less than $10 million each.

Federal MP Stuart Robert said yesterday the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) documents – available on the internet – backed his claims that creating a dive site for the Gold Coast would not cost anywhere near the $30 million quoted by State Tourism Minister Kate Jones.

The ANAO report, Management of the Disposal of Specialist Military Equipment, itemises all sales of warships and other vessels between 1997 and 2012. It includes the costs to scuttle HMAS Canberra in 2008 at $7 million and HMAS Adelaide in 2010 at $6 million.

“Both of these ships are exactly the same class of warship as HMAS Darwin,” Mr Robert said. “This makes it very clear that scuttling HMAS Darwin off the Gold Coast would cost no more than $10 million, even if we allow for an increase in costs over the past eight to 10 years.

“This document also substantiates the letter I received last week from Darren Chester, Minister for Defence Personnel, which estimates that the cost to scuttle a warship like the HMAS Darwin would be in the region of $8-$10 million.”

Mr Robert, a former minister in the defence portfolio, is adamant the cost to scuttle the ship off the Gold Coast would be about $10 million.

He again called on Ms Jones to sign an expression of interest (EOI) for the vessel, or for two others which are up for sale – HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Newcastle.

“The Federal Government cannot give Ms Jones a final cost until she signs this EOI, so we can’t move forward with this project for our city until she does,” he said. “I don’t understand why she’s stalling. Let’s get a dive wreck.”

The federal MP warned the Gold Coast could lose HMAS Darwin to Tasmania, which had already started negotiations to buy the ship and scuttle it off Skeleton Bay, near St Helens.

Project manager Peter Paulson is quoted in media reports saying it would cost about $6 million to get the ship down from Sydney, prepared and sunk. The figure excluded clean-up costs.

“So much for Minister Jones’s cost of $30 million,” Mr Robert said.

The ANOA document details years of intricate negotiations between the Federal Government and the governments of Victoria and NSW for HMAS Canberra and Adelaide.

It says agreement was finally reached on August 5, 2009, for the sea dumping of the Canberra, following approval by the Federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts and consent approval under Victoria’s Coastal Management Act.

“The ex-HMAS Canberra was scuttled off Barwon Heads, Victoria, on October 4, 2009. Defence informed the ANAO that the ultimate cost of the project to the Commonwealth was $7 million,” the document says.

The lengthy document also reveals that ex-HMAS Adelaide was scuttled off Terrigan at a cost of $6 million.

The document shows that in 2005, the HMAS Brisbane was gifted to the Queensland Government and scuttled off Mooloolaba at a cost of $3 million to the Federal Government.

“HMAS Tobruk will be sunk in the coming weeks off the central coast of Queensland and the total cost of this project was in the region of $7.5 million,” Mr Robert said.

The ANAO document also notes that dive sites have the potential to generate enormous income for cities.