Construction firm John Holland sues State Government

WESTERN Australia’s government is vowing to fight a $300 million legal claim from building company John Holland over issues with the Perth Children’s Hospital.

Following two years of discussions, the company says the state government has failed to fairly compensate John Holland for “late and significant changes” to its contract.

The $1.2 billion hospital opened about three years late in 2018 after problems including asbestos in ceiling panels and lead in drinking water.

John Holland claims it is owed more than $300 million and a spokeswoman said the company had “no other option” than to proceed with costly litigation.

The state has its own claim against the China-owned company over project completion delays. Premier Mark McGowan, whose Labor government came into power in 2017, has pledged to protect taxpayers’ interests.

“We’ll fight this claim,” Mr McGowan told reporters on Wednesday.

“These are historic issues caused by the incompetence of the last Liberal-National government. But we’ll fight this matter in the interests of West Australian taxpayers.”

The premier did not deny when asked if the government had made separate offers of $12 million and $20 million in 2018 in a bid to settle the dispute.

“What happens with these things is you just try and resolve issues as affordably as you can,” he said.

“But obviously John Holland wasn’t interested in that.”

John Holland said in its statement the construction process had been “marred by extensive and late state design and construction changes”.

But Mr McGowan rejected suggestions the government should not have sought to take possession of the hospital when it did.

“It’s absolutely preposterous,” he said.

“Had we not done that, we would have an empty building with no kids in it and a decrepit Princess Margaret Hospital.

“What we did is we sorted out the issues by taking back control of the hospital and sorting out the lead in the water, which the last government couldn’t do.”