Ms O’CONNOR – Welcome to the table, Lia. I wanted to talk about the Cygnet jetty. I am asking this question on behalf of the people of Cygnet and surrounds, and also my colleague, Dr Rosalie Woodruff, who’s the member for Franklin, and Greens Leader. Ms Morris, I’m sure you know some of the details of this story, but just for a bit of background for the benefit of anyone who’s curious who is here. MAST assessed Cygnet’s original jetty and decided it was not fit for purpose and needed replacing. They explored options, including consulting locals, which is an excellent response, and built a new fit for purpose jetty in a new location which MAST worked with the community on, but MAST is also facing $20,000 in cost to dismantle and remove the original jetty. Minister, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it’s a perfectly workable old classic Tasmanian timber jetty that’s much valued by this active working waterfront.
MAST worked with the community; the understanding was that the original jetty is a good bit of infrastructure, it just needs a bit of work. It provides value for the active working waterfront and a second deep-water spot on the river. MAST, in response to listening to the community, held an EOI for a lease of the original jetty to undertake the repair work, and offered to help retain the existing infrastructure by supplying the $20,000 allocated for demolition.
Local boat builders and sailing experts were successful and paid Crown Law about $1000 to submit an application. In the last month or so, Statewide Moorings have expressed an interest and have offered to rebuild the jetty. There’s been meetings with MAST and Parks, but the stumbling block has been Parks. The original group would be prepared to work with Statewide Moorings, who are a local Huon Valley business, and MAST obviously has offered to help with some of the materials and the money.
The report back from locals is that MAST has been outstanding and receptive to the community’s desire to retain the old timber jetty, but the sticking point has been Parks, which has come up with three different excuses for why the locals shouldn’t be able to work with MAST or work to themselves to fix that jetty. Minister, are you across this situation? Have you got any insights you’d like to share with us? At the moment, there’s a MAST sign on the jetty that says the jetty will be closed on 1 December and demolished, which has devastated the local community.
Mr VINCENT – My knowledge of this situation had just come before me with what you read out, and a little bit of information I have here before me. Can I say I’m glad I’m not sitting here as the minister responsible for Parks at the moment?
Ms O’CONNOR – Well, he will be back in here next week, and we will have a little follow-up with him.
Mr VINCENT – My knowledge of this is extremely limited. Do you want to expand more on it?
Ms MORRIS – I could just explain our position, and that is that the ‘old Cygnet jetty’, as we call it now, was built in 1965, so it’s fairly old. We carry out three-yearly structural audits to ascertain the status of our facilities, and these audits ensure the facilities are maintained to a good standard. They also provide residual lifespan so we can lobby government for money for replacement, which we did successfully with this one. The audit revealed that it needed replacing, the old Cygnet Jetty, basically because it wasn’t fit for MAST’s purposes. I need to emphasise that. MAST purposes are public purposes, so obviously it’s a much higher standard than if an individual owned a jetty. Based on that we replaced it, in consultation with the community, and it ended up relocating, but certainly from our perspective, we’re very willing to divest the structure, but the sticking point has been it needs a lease or licence over it for a potential new ownership.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay, thank you. Minister, to refresh in case you haven’t in the brief yet seen what Parks has said, the first excuse for not entering into a lease and licence arrangement with the local community organisation was that the wharf is not up to standard. We can all agree on that. That’s right. That’s why MAST wanted to replace it. Then Parks said, ‘Oh no, we can’t do this because there are not enough car parks.’ It’s a four-berth jetty, so MAST found it needs four car parks. There is room there to formalise four car parks, which for a small community should be enough.
Then Parks came back and said, ‘Oh no, we can’t go into a lease and licence arrangement with you, or even really talk about it, because of the potential damage to the coastal foreshore.’ Obviously that area’s been used as a jetty for some time. Normal boat repairs won’t damage the foreshore. Swing moorings in Cygnet and demolition will do so far more. Minister, I guess I’m imploring you on behalf of the Cygnet community to have a conversation with your colleague, the Minister for Parks, because this is one of those local situations that should be resolvable by the two people who need to talk to each other talking to each other.
Mr VINCENT – I’m happy to have that discussion, and include Lia in that, MAST in that to have that discussion.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay, so can I just impress upon you that there’s an urgency here? I don’t know what the date is today.
CHAIR – It’s about two weeks.
Ms O’CONNOR – Less than two weeks, the notice that’s been put up says that that jetty will be permanently closed to use and then it will be demolished. Is it possible to have an extension provided to the community while there’s an opportunity to negotiate and hopefully sort Parks out?
Ms MORRIS – Certainly we have to shut it, close it for public use on 1 December based on engineering advice that we have, but we are very happy to delay or postpone any demolition subject to the ongoing negotiations between the third party that’s interested in taking ownership and Parks.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay. Well, Minister, that provides you with some breathing space to have that conversation. I guess it is reasonable to ask you, as minister, whether you understand where the local community is coming from and the reasonableness of the ask, and the fact that they’ve been so proactive in working with MAST trying to find a path through for a broader community benefit.
Mr VINCENT – Yes, I can see that from what you’ve read out, and am happy to continue those discussions and in that amount of time it would have to be shut, but the ability to have an ongoing discussion is still there. So we will take that opportunity.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay, thank you. I might follow it up with you in Council next week to see if you have had an opportunity to talk.
CHAIR – There will be two ministers here you can take to task.
Ms O’CONNOR – I know. It’s wonderful.
Mr VINCENT – No. Not take to task: have discussions with, thank you.
CHAIR – She might take the other one to task, not so much you.
Ms O’CONNOR – Have a friendly discussion. Can we just confirm for the Cygnet and surrounds community that while the wharf will be closed, on engineering advice, on 1 December, the demolition program will be delayed while the two ministers involved have that conversation and hopefully resolve the issue, so that the Cygnet community can keep their little wooden working wharf, with some extra engineering support to bring it up to scratch a bit? Okay. All right. I will talk to you next week.
Mr VINCENT – You know where to find me.
Ms O’CONNOR – I totally do.
