The government allocated $9.4 million over five years in the May budget for costs associated with the establishment of an expert panel and specialist advisers to oversee the tender process.
But Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner on Thursday said the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy will be provided with $10 million in extra funding to meet additional costs.
Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin says the latest development is further evidence the government has bungled the multi-billion dollar project from the outset.
"Before a hole has even been dug, a tenderer even selected, we now learn that admin costs alone on this troubled project have already blown out by a staggering $10 million," Senator Minchin said.
"Money which is being burnt up on lawyers, consultants and the like, with no actual construction start date in sight.
"This blow-out is indicative of the bumbling and mismanagement that has come to symbolise this shambolic process," Senator Minchin said.
The federal government will contribute $4.7 billion to the construction of the network, which has an estimated cost of $15 billion.
The government had planned to have finalised the tender process for the project by June this year, with construction of the network to have commenced by the end of 2008.
It now seems more likely construction of the fibre-to-the-node network will not begin until the end of 2009.
The government has said the schedule for the project was always based on an indicative timetable and contingent on getting information about existing infrastructure to proponents.
