Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for ENERGY AND RENEWABLES, Mr DUIGAN
It is so nice to have you here every day at question time. Minister, you are responsible for Wellington Park, and the protection of its environment and heritage values. Why are you letting the minister for Business, Industry and Resources run the internal departmental review of future uses of kunanyi? What direct role do you have as the responsible minister? Or are you just happy to be sidelined in this process and let the minister, Eric Abetz, make all the decisions?
ANSWER
Mr President, I thank the member for the question. Earlier this year, as you would well know, the government announced that it would undertake a comprehensive holistic review of kunanyi/Mount Wellington. The mountain is a very important asset for the state of Tasmania. It is one of, if not our most, visited natural attractions.
Ms O’Connor – It is also much‑loved, in case you wanted to incorporate that into your understanding.
Mr DUIGAN – Of course it is. Yes, I appreciate the little prompts, the tips and the help.
Under our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, we recognise the importance of this. The land management is not just national parks. There is a complicated land tenure of the 18,000 hectares that surround Mt Wellington. There are a number of landowners in that space, including the Hobart City Council, the Parks department, Glenorchy City Council, and private land holdings. It is entirely appropriate for that review to be conducted outside of the Parks department. It is an attraction not just for the Hobart City Council and for Parks, but for all Tasmanians to answer the questions and look at the questions and to look at the questions that are being laid bare before us: Transport, Land Management, all of those things. It is time to have a well considered review. I note the aspersions that you would place on my colleague, but I think he is well placed to conduct-
Ms O’Connor – Could you, speaking of answering questions –
Mr PRESIDENT – Order, order. We cannot debate in question time.
Standing order 129 is pretty clear. I have always allowed a little interjection because I think that is good for members. Standing Order 129 does say members should not interrupt another member while addressing the Council unless it is for the purposes of making a personal explanation, calling my attention to a point of order, or privilege suddenly arising, calling attention to want of quorum or moving that a member no longer be heard.
I remind members that while we are having question time, it is not a time for debate –
Ms O’Connor – Mr President, just one more on that.
Mr PRESIDENT – A supplementary?
Mr DUIGAN – We do a supplementary. Is that a thing?
Mr PRESIDENT – We do have –
Ms O’Connor – Well a number of members have asked more than one question today, minister.
Mr PRESIDENT – Order. I will read the supplementary ruling out.
Ms O’Connor – Mr President –
Mr PRESIDENT – Sit down, please. So we are all clear on this and we do not lose order in question time I will find the supplementary. It is at the President’s discretion to allow a supplementary question, but that requires rising at the conclusion of the question.
Ms O’Connor – Which I did.
Mr PRESIDENT – There was another member on their feet when you rose. I will allow the supplementary on this question and then we will move forward.
Supplementary Question
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you, Mr President. Well because I have been pulled up under Standing Order 129 for debating you, I will remind you, minister, that you did not answer the question and a question related specifically to what role you have as the Parks minister in this process. It seems like not very much at all, which is interesting.
My next question to you is, it is clear your party, the Liberal Party, has a policy to support a cable car. It introduced legislation, the Mount Wellington Cableway Facilitation Bill, in order to facilitate the cable car and privatise the pinnacle should the development be approved. A special section was set up in the Department of State Growth to promote the cable car when minister Groom was the minister, and now we have an internal departmental review that completely sidelines the Wellington Park Trust. Can you stand in here and honestly say that this process is not a Trojan horse for the cable car?
Mr DUIGAN – Mr President, I thank the member for the question, I will speak to the substance of your original question. I point out that this is a review being headed by State Growth – that we will be listening to all Tasmanians who will have the opportunity to provide their input and feedback into that process. Government departments will also do that in my department through NRE, and the Parks department will have their voice heard through that process. I will be a participant in that. Concerning cableways and so on, I do not think it is any secret that the Liberal government does support –
Ms O’Connor – That is what this is about.
Mr DUIGAN – That is not what this is about, but it is about looking at what our options are. Do you support that road that takes however many 100,000 cars up to the top of the Mt Wellington?
Ms O’Connor – There are a lot of buses too.
Mr DUIGAN – Is that the best outcome, belching out CO2 into the atmosphere? Is that the best outcome? That is a reasonable question to ask. It is an absolutely reasonable question to ask.
Ms O’Connor – Talk about all the trees you would have to knock down to put the cables up.
Mr PRESIDENT – Order.
Mr DUIGAN – No, it is not a Trojan horse in any way, shape or form, but a way to look at what are the issues we face on the mountain – fire, being another one of those critical things.
