I have re-read the announcement. It does not actually say that...

I have re-read the announcement. It does not actually say that the SA government has given them any money, it just says "the South Australian Government has approved a $5 million wave energy pilot plant off the Eyre Peninsula coast" i.e. they may have simply approved the wave power licence. The way I read it at the moment the project is a $5 million project but there is not necessarily any government funding.

Also, when Carnegie signed the agreement with SA they were planning to use Wave Rider buoys to measure the wave resouce. From the SA govt announcement of 11/02/2009:

"Energy Minister Patrick Conlon says he granted the licence to Carnegie Corporation today to enable
Carnegie to install a few wave rider buoys to test the power of the waves."

Maybe this has just been misreported. I notice that it is only news for news.com.au and The Australian, and they might be the same news service, not sure about the latter. Anyway, the plot thickens.