WA government seeks cost recovery from Deloitte over flawed university merger report

Under a high-cost Curtin-UWA merger scenario, the report calculated total costs of $659 million but wrote $399 million, a $260 million discrepancy. Under a low-cost three-university scenario, the actual total was $512 million but the report stated $823 million, a $311 million discrepancy. The report also used outdated names for Curtin University and included a World Health Organization reference with a ChatGPT metadata tag in its URL. Deloitte admitted using generative AI for research collation, synthesis, and editorial proofing, but initially dismissed errors as minor. The WA government says errors do not affect the modelling or findings, and Deloitte will re-issue the report after review. Murdoch University's vice-chancellor criticised the report and the government's pursuit of the merger.