Techport Australia

In reply to Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (2 August 2016). (Estimates Committee B)

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs): All capital works associated with the Techport Australia Common User Facility have now been completed.

Whilst the CUF has been operational since 2010, a number of residual works have been undertaken since that time to ensure the CUF meets all of the state's obligations under the air warfare destroyer project in an efficient and safe manner. The final components of these works have only been completed in 2015-16 resulting in a delay in Defence SA's ability to undertake a full assessment of the depreciation budget for the CUF.

The final works completed in 2015-16 were:

Finalisation of construction of Building 12 at a cost of $0.723m.

Finalisation of installation of a Cathodic Protection system to protect the wharf and ship lift piling from corrosion costing $1.876m.

Following completion of these final residual works, Defence SA undertook a review of the budgeted depreciation charge taking account of the final capitalised values and assessed useful lives of all assets. The result of this assessment was a reduction in the budgeted depreciation charge for 2016-17 of $0.170m and an ongoing reduction in the annual depreciation charge of $0.160m.

The adjustment was rounded to the nearest $0.100m for variance explanation purposes.