The Albanese Labor Government’s captains call on American startup PsiQuantum has reached yet another humiliating milestone with reports the much-touted Brisbane site has fallen through.
It has today been announced that PsiQuantum has abandoned its original Brisbane Airport site, moving its $1 billion taxpayer-funded project to a new site at Moreton Bay Central.
It follows reports earlier this month that the Brisbane site continued to sit idle while construction on PsiQuantum’s computing facility in Chicago began in October last year.
Shadow Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Aaron Violi said this was yet another development on an investment that has been shambolic from the beginning.
"This was a deal cloaked in secrecy from the start. We already know the Labor government’s allocation of $470 million to PsiQuantum was made with no proper procurement process, and as the Productivity Commission said, wouldn’t pass the Government’s national interest framework process.
"The Prime Minister’s own media release spruiks about delivering a Future Made in Australia and making Brisbane a tech manufacturing powerhouse. Not one of those things have proven true – the only works happening at PsiQuantum are in Chicago, and now the location has been moved to Moreton Bay with no explanation to the taxpayers footing the bill.”
"Moving the goalposts to Moreton Bay is a clear admission that the original site was rushed through without standard due diligence or proper planning approvals. Labor hand-picked this single American startup, and now the wheels are falling off the logistics.
"Minister Ayres needs to come clean today: how much taxpayer money was wasted on the aborted airport planning phase, how far back does this push his promised 2027 completion timeline, and why are Chicago cranes moving while Queensland sites are being abandoned?"