Western Australia’s government has been torn to shreds for spending nearly $600 million on Covid rapid antigen tests — the price of two hospitals — with the state’s flabbergasted auditor saying she had “never before witnessed” such an escalation in the cost of a program without “due consideration of the impacts”.
Auditor General Caroline Spencer on Wednesday released her report into the state’s Covid response for 2021-22, with a particular focus on the McGowan government’s purchase of $580 million worth of RATs in anticipation of a massive infection wave that never came.
In total, the WA government purchased nearly 111 million tests for a state with a population of around 2.7 million people.
“An initial intention by Health entities to spend $3 million on RATs for health workers and returning travellers rapidly evolved to purchasing $440 million worth of RATs — around twice the cost of the Bunbury Hospital redevelopment,” Ms Spencer said in a statement.
“Along with the $140 million spent by the Department of Finance on RATs, public entities spent the equivalent of 10 per cent of the state’s 2022 operating surplus on diagnostic plastics without demonstrable evidence of clear, considered and co-...
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