ASIO's new central office has burst its budget once again, with the Canberra lakeside behemoth now set to cost more than $600 million.
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And the latest price hike may not be the last, with about 60 electrical contractors forced to walk off the Constitution Avenue site yesterday when their company, Heyday Group - a subsidiary of troubled engineering company Hastie - collapsed.
Hundreds of other ACT workers could also be affected by the Hastie collapse.
The building will from next year house about 2000 Australian Security Intelligence Organisation employees. The building was announced in 2007 by the Howard government at a cost of $460 million but has ballooned several times since, finally reaching $631 million this month.
A spokeswoman for the Finance Department said the latest increase was the result of ''contractors underestimating the extent and cost of their works on this highly complex project''. The December date set for ASIO staff to begin moving in had also been pushed back three months to early 2013.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said it could take weeks before electrical contractors were able to return to the site.
Canberra workers for two of Hastie's 44 subsidiary companies, Heyday Group and Border Stainless Steel, had already been affected by the company's collapse under an estimated $500 million in debt.
Hastie Group disclosed on Friday $20 million of losses after the discovery of accounting irregularities.
The Department of Finance and Deregulation said yesterday an investigation had begun to determine the full impact of the collapse on the ASIO project.
The ACT government said it would also conduct an audit to determine the extent of Hastie's involvement in its projects.
CFMEU ACT branch secretary Dean Hall said about 60 electricians employed by Heyday on the new ASIO site were stood down.
''On top of this, you've got about 30 sub-contractors on that site and while they were working this morning, we don't know for how much longer.''
An electrician on the ASIO site said workers were instructed to pack up their tools and were told during a two-hour meeting that they were out of work.
The worker said he had just bought a house and land package and taken on a mortgage.
Mr Hall said a further 30 Heyday staff on the Centrelink project in Tuggeranong had also been stood down.
''This is the big point - Hastie is a parent company for all these other companies that are now being put in jeopardy as well,'' he said.
ACT Treasurer Andrew Barr said the government would work to minimise the impact on employees.
''The ACT government is undertaking an audit of its projects to determine the extent of Hastie's involvement in ACT government projects,'' he said. A Department of Finance and Deregulation spokeswoman said the managing contractor for the ASIO site, Lend Lease, was assessing the potential effects of the collapse on that project.
''This assessment will include options to mitigate the impact on the project. However, Lend Lease Limited will be unable to confirm the outcome of these investigations until further information is available from the administrator,'' she said.
