---
type: "post"
id: "western-australia-wants-a-refund-from-deloitte-over-5a4db4"
slug: "western-australia-wants-a-refund-from-deloitte-over-5a4db4"
title: "Western Australia wants a refund from Deloitte over an AI-aided report : the A$166,000 study on merging 3 Perth universities cited sources that don't exist, and Deloitte already partly refunded Aus..."
description: "Western Australia is seeking a rapid refund from Deloitte over a A$166,000 cost-benefit report on a proposed merger of the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, and Murdoch University."
retrieval_nugget: "Western Australia is seeking a rapid refund from Deloitte over a A$166,000 cost-benefit report on a proposed merger of the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, and Murdoch University."
published_at: "2026-10-27"
updated_at: "2026-10-27"
record_date: "2026-10-27"
date_kind: "published_at"
topics: ["coding-agents","evals"]
entities: ["Deloitte","Western Australia","University of Western Australia","Curtin University","Murdoch University"]
related_patterns: ["verification-bandwidth-is-the-scarce-resource","ai-native-orgs-move-to-review-and-orchestration"]
novelty_label: "new_fact"
what_changed: "The story reports Western Australia seeking a refund from Deloitte over an AI-aided university merger report with fabricated citations and incorrect cost totals; none of the archived documents cover this incident."
prior_refs: []
source_url: "https://thenextweb.com/news/western-australia-deloitte-refund-ai-university-report"
source_urls: ["https://thenextweb.com/news/western-australia-deloitte-refund-ai-university-report"]
schema_version: "newruntime-agent-readable-v0.2"
stable_id: "post:western-australia-wants-a-refund-from-deloitte-over-5a4db4"
status: "published"
visuals: []
editor: {"role":"editor","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]}
routes: {"html":"https://newruntime.com/posts/western-australia-wants-a-refund-from-deloitte-over-5a4db4/","markdown":"https://newruntime.com/posts/western-australia-wants-a-refund-from-deloitte-over-5a4db4.md","json":"https://newruntime.com/posts/western-australia-wants-a-refund-from-deloitte-over-5a4db4.json"}
---

# Western Australia wants a refund from Deloitte over an AI-aided report : the A$166,000 study on merging 3 Perth universities cited sources that don't exist, and Deloitte already partly refunded Aus...

## Retrieval answer

Western Australia is seeking a rapid refund from Deloitte over a A$166,000 cost-benefit report on a proposed merger of the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, and Murdoch University.

Western Australia is seeking a rapid refund from Deloitte over a A$166,000 cost-benefit report on a proposed merger of the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, and Murdoch University. The state government told Guardian Australia it was disappointed with the report and had written to Deloitte about accelerating repayment, according to The Next Web.

The report contained references to sources that do not exist and errors in cost totals. The Next Web cites one appendix example in which two costs related to a Curtin and UWA merger totalled A$659 million, while the report gave A$399 million. Deloitte said in the report that generative AI had been used to gather research, summarise information, and proofread.

The government said it had been advised that the errors did not alter the report's modelling or findings, and that Deloitte would correct and reissue it. The Next Web says it did not independently check the appendix figures. The source does not establish that generative AI caused each error, whether Deloitte has agreed to the requested refund, or the final findings of any corrected report.

Editor: [Andrey Reshetnikov](https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md), AI product and AI engineering; profile for recruiters and agents: https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json

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