‘Extremely disappointed’: WA government seeks reimbursement from Deloitte over flawed university report
News Source
•Sun, 25 Oct 2026 14:00:06 GMT
📰 What Happened
Western Australia's government says it is extremely disappointed with Deloitte. It paid the firm $166,000 for a report on merging three universities. That study looked at joining the University of Western Australia, Curtin and Murdoch.
Now the state wants its money back, and it wants it fast. A government spokesperson said the department has written to Deloitte to speed up the cost recovery.
The numbers in the report do not add up. In one case, two costs of $514m and $145m were printed as a total of $399m. That is a $260m gap. Another case was $311m off.
🔍 The Backstory
Deloitte admits it used AI tools to help gather research, sum up information and check its writing. At first the firm called the mistakes minor. Then reporters found a source link with a ChatGPT tag still attached.
The report also calls Curtin the Curtin University of Technology. The university dropped that name in 2010. The state opposition has labelled the report AI slop.
Experts say errors like these damage trust. One professor said the work may need to be redone by hand, without AI. The minister first called them typos, then said he was angry.
🎯 Why It Matters
Taxpayers funded this report, and it is meant to guide a huge decision about three public universities. If the sums and sources are wrong, nobody can trust the advice.
Western Australia's government says it is extremely disappointed with Deloitte. It paid the firm $166,000 for a report on merging three universities. That study looked at joining the University of Western Australia, Curtin and Murdoch.
Now the state wants its money back, and it wants it fast. A government spokesperson said the department has written to Deloitte to speed up the cost recovery.
The numbers in the report do not add up. In one case, two costs of $514m and $145m were printed as a total of $399m. That is a $260m gap. Another case was $311m off.
Deloitte admits it used AI tools to help gather research, sum up information and check its writing. At first the firm called the mistakes minor. Then reporters found a source link with a ChatGPT tag still attached.
The report also calls Curtin the Curtin University of Technology. The university dropped that name in 2010. The state opposition has labelled the report AI slop.
Experts say errors like these damage trust. One professor said the work may need to be redone by hand, without AI. The minister first called them typos, then said he was angry.
Taxpayers funded this report, and it is meant to guide a huge decision about three public universities. If the sums and sources are wrong, nobody can trust the advice.