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AAP
AAP
Politics
Stephanie Gardiner and Andrew Brown

The $180m bill to calculate the Inland Rail blow-out

Inland Rail Anthony Albanese Catherine King
The federal government shelved the Inland Rail route north of Parkes, in central NSW, in early May. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

Consultant firms were paid almost $180 million to estimate the bloated Inland Rail budget, while a departing executive got $317,000 soon before half the freight route was scrapped.

The federal government shelved the Inland Rail route north of Parkes, in central NSW, in early May, amid a budget blow-out of at least $45.6 billion.

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