Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, can we argue that this is a dysfunctional government? Is that the situation now? I will get to that in a moment, but for the term of this parliament, seven months on since the election, we have seen legislation passed, some introduced from opposition benches, such as industrial manslaughter that passed through both Houses and now has royal assent. I would argue that this parliament has held the government to account.
In the matter of the Spirit vessels and the Devonport Quaylink berth project debacle, costing millions of dollars more, a cost that taxpayers will be bearing for many years, with no clear starting time for the new ferries to arrive to take passengers, nor even berth because the infrastructure will not be ready possibly for, who knows, a couple of years perhaps. This has major ramifications on the government, with the former minister for Infrastructure first stepping aside from his ministry, then earlier this week relinquishing his seat on the front bench.
Sadly, this major bungling by the government and its lack of oversight of the Spirits delivery and wharf upgrades has real impacts on Tasmanian businesses and on Tasmanian tourism. It makes it harder for families separated by the body of water that is Bass Strait who are finding it impossible to catch the ferries with delays of many months.
There are many infrastructure projects that have either stalled or are not going to be delivered any time soon and particularly over budget. There are efficiency dividends expected of our public services that will reduce service delivery across the board with impacts on the community sector that will have to pick up the pieces. That is the dysfunction that we see and what the Greens are very concerned about.
Added to this is significant concern from the ferries debacle is governance around GBEs and state-owned companies, of the ministerial responsibilities as shareholders of these GBEs or state-owned companies. While it is clear that this government is trying to appease many of their funders –
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