The Western Australian government announced it is extremely disappointed with Deloitte’s feasibility study on a possible merger of the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and Murdoch University, and has asked the consultancy to return the $166,000 fee as quickly as possible.
The study outlined three merger pathways, low, mid and high cost, and detailed the financial assumptions in an appendix. In the high-cost scenario for a Curtin-UWA merger, the report listed day-one costs of $514 million and five-year post-day-one costs of $145 million, which should total $659 million, yet the document recorded only $399 million, a shortfall of $260 million.
A similar mismatch appeared in the low-cost scenario that combined all three institutions. The report cited day-one expenses of $396 million and five-year post-day-one costs of $116 million, which together equal $512 million, but the published figure was $823 million, creating a $311 million discrepancy.
Investigations revealed that the report contained AI-generated hallucinations, including a World Health Organization citation that carried a ChatGPT metadata tag and repeated use of the outdated name “Curtin University of Technology,” a title not used since 2010. Deloitte acknowledged that generative AI assisted in research collation, synthesis and editorial proofing, though it initially dismissed the mistakes as minor.
Prof Stephen Bartos of the University of Canberra, an expert in public-sector governance, said the magnitude of the errors undermines the report’s credibility and recommended a completely new analysis or a manual rewrite without AI. Prof Christian Downie of the Australian National University warned that the lack of transparency makes it hard to trust such documents and urged governments to revise consulting contracts to embed clear incentives and penalties.
Education minister Tony Buti first described the inaccuracies as typographical, but later expressed anger and disappointment, while the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification has formally written to Deloitte to accelerate the reimbursement process. State opposition leaders have labeled the flawed analysis “AI slop.”
Murdoch University’s vice-chancellor, Prof Andrew Deeks, rejected the report’s conclusions, arguing in an op-ed that a merger would consume significant time, money and energy, reduce student choice and alienate alumni, and therefore does not serve Western Australia’s interests.