IBM blamed for Australian online census debacle

I have had, mostly technical, roles in some projects that could be classified as you did. Although I don't claim to have any authority in managing projects at this scale, my best guess is egoism.

All these large projects have people involved and those people all work according to their own agenda. Including the people involved at the client side. Spending someone else's money tilts any decision towards personal gain somewhat, consciously or subconsciously.

Especially when IBM Australia has been accused of "ethical transgressions" [0] in a report by the State of Queensland. Although in that case, part of the issue was the government not going after them for damages competently/aggressively enough.

I'm thinking big consultancies either have the "right" connections or are simply better at talking to bureaucrats who ultimately decide what gets funded?

[0] http://www.healthpayrollinquiry.qld.gov.au/home?a=207203

Governments keep overpaying massively for these dysfunctional websites / IT services just to cover their own asses by choosing the big name.

Imagine how badly we have been getting gouged on other government spending such as roads and bridges. After all, look at the Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport which was recently privately built by a wealthy QLD family for only A$100 million, and built in record time to boot. Now imagine a government tried to do it, I am sure it would have run over $1 billion and taken 15 years.