The Greens believe that issues around governance need to be answered and that any merger of TT-Line, TasPorts and TasRail should not be on the table.
This is clearly the concern of the GBEs as well, according to submissions by TasPorts and TT Line to the government’s merger process.
It is concerning that after the debacle with the new Spirit vessels and associated port infrastructure that the government would even think a merger of three GBEs is a good idea.
The people of Tasmania can see the shortcomings of the government’s capacity to deliver large projects. Understanding the basics before announcements is Governance 101.
The Liberals need to abandon their hare-brained ideas of solving GBE issues through mergers and privatisation.
The Rockliff government’s approach runs into troubled waters every time. The Spirit saga has damaged this state’s reputation and has cost Tasmanians dearly. Tasmania’s GBEs should work in the best interests of Tasmanians, and it’s only right they should want reform where that’s not happening.
They’ve raised concerns that merging GBEs, so diverse in purpose and operation, would create further issues for their businesses. Worse yet, it could breach federal competition laws which require government businesses to compete equally with others in the market.
At the same time, TT-Line, TasPorts and TasRail are also on the chopping block as part of the Liberal Government’s proposed GBE sell-off.
Mergers and privatisation are ill-considered, lazy attempts to fix major budgetary and competency issues. They are just attempts to paper over the Liberals’ failures in GBE governance.
The community expects and deserves solutions to the government’s lacklustre approach to issues of fiscal responsibility and the accountability of state owned organisations.
