Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Deputy Speaker, let us circle back to the original privatisation idea from this government, this Liberal government that brought forward the expressions of interest (EOI) process to privatise our parks, our public lands, our Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, which is protected with the intent that it is there for future generations. The scheme to privatise it through the EOI has resulted in nine projects coming through in 10 years. That is not enhancing our tourism industry at all. In fact, it has been an enormous detriment to it, not only nationally but internationally.
The first project through the EOI process that showed how terrible this was, was the Lake Malbena heli‑tourism proposal. It has recently come out that the proponent has not even been paying his invoices. He was in arrears to Parks. This scam of a scheme has not even been making us any money. It has copped criticism from the World Heritage Committee multiple times, back from when we adjusted the boundaries to facilitate it. This has to be causing serious concern within the Tasmanian community because how that has been handled in the past is a blueprint of concern for how the privatisation of GBEs and other public assets is going to be held moving forward.
The Lake Malbena lease is coming up for another extension on 31 March, just a few weeks away. Is this government going to continue down this path and renew it again, despite the fact that the proponent was asked by the federal government more than 12 months ago to provide the documents they needed to progress the EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) referral? It is still not there. Has all the money to Parks been paid up? Is all of that up to date at the present time?
It is seriously concerning to Tasmanians and it has really set out what will be. Through that EOI process, nine projects in 10 years have gone through. However, there have been multiple projects that have been withdrawn from that process. Is that because the process is terrible? Is because there is no confidence in it? It is certainly not building confidence for those within our tourism industry who are going through the proper processes, proper public consultation, who are being very transparent with all Tasmanians and operating on their public land, because they do not know what is going on behind the scenes. Everything is hidden in secrecy behind this shield, this lack of transparency, under the alias of commercial-in-confidence. It is public land and the public have every right to understand what is actually happening and what businesses are currently proposing.
Look at what has happened as our waterways have been privatised off to the salmon industry. If we are going to privatise things, there has to be proper regulation put in place. That is completely at odds with the same government proposal put on the same day talking about privatising GBEs – that we have too many laws, too many regulations or too many words in Tasmania. We are going to need more if this proposal is to ever be put forward sensibly so that Tasmanians still have a say in what is actually happening, so that anything that is privatised can actually be properly governed. That is not what we are currently seeing happen and there is absolutely no confidence that it can go forward. The two ideas do not sensibly coexist and they cannot.
If this government cannot handle its own policy in the EOI process, how on earth can Tasmanians have confidence that they could privatise anything else with any kind of responsibility? That is why it is tremendous that the Labor Party and the crossbench are opposing this ridiculous idea.
