Former premier Peter Beattie has accused the state's independent Auditor-General of being "political" after he handed down a report which found his government underestimated the cost of building three hospitals by $2.2 billion.
The report, handed down on Tuesday, found failures in the planning, approval and delivery of the Gold Coast University Hospital, the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital and the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, which were originally budgeted at just under $3 billion.
The final project delivery cost came in at $5.08 billion, about 77 per cent more than the initial estimates.
"Initial cost estimates for each project were announced before business cases were developed," Auditor-General Andrew Greaves reported.
"There were no caveats on the reliability or completeness of estimates when they were made public."
But speaking to Fairfax Radio 4BC, Mr Beattie refused to apologise for what he said was following due process and consulting with health professionals.
"Let me say three things, I make no apologies whatsoever for announcing the construction of a hospital for children and for making sure both the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast had hospitals," he said.
"For years, there was opposition politically and we needed some way to break through to actually build the children's hospital, build one on the Gold Coast, build one on the Sunshine Coast – whenever you have big ideas, when you want to build major projects, it is always going to be difficult.
"Now what I think the Auditor-General has missed with this - and I think it is unfortunate that he has - is that when you start, you have to go out and consult with the doctors, you have to consult with the nurses, you have to consult with the process.
"That was a long drawn out process. Now, I announced this in 2006 and a year later I retired.
"Construction of it was done after my time. I think he is being unfortunate in terms of the use of his term. I think there is some political background in doing that. I would hope that in future, his reports wouldn't be so political."
Mr Beattie said it was unfair to blame him for the project's blowout.
"I announced this in 2006, I left and retired in 2007, the work hadn't started," he said.
"I think it is totally unreasonable to blame my government for the processes that happened.
"I have been retired over seven years. Now to follow that logic, if Campbell Newman's cat gets pregnant next week, I'll be responsible. It's a nonsense and if the Bledisloe Cup is not won by the Wallabies next year, it is my fault.
"I mean, at the end of the day, I think we need to stop the politics. The decisions on these hospitals are really important, that is, they had to be built for the children, they had to be built on the Gold Coast, they had to be built on the Sunshine Coast.
"No government prior to mine had the guts to build them. I set out because people were entitled to it. I make no apology for building hospitals for Queensland.
"If you look around, every major project that has been built in Queensland in the last 20 years has been started by my government. I haven't seen a major project since. So at the end of the day, let's accept that these hospitals had to be built."
But the government took full advantage of the report's findings to deliver a kick to Labor's financial management.
"If you thought health payroll was bad, this is the mother of all waste scandals in the health area," Premier Campbell Newman said.
"[The] $2.2 billion would have totally cleared waiting lists in Queensland [or] built another two hospitals."
The timing of the report proved perfect for the government, which is mid-way through a week of health related announcements.
