Ms BADGER – Minister, while Parks might be saving $800,000 a year on charging seniors extra, you have the Tyndall Range, which, as you’ve just said, has had a $40 million price tag since 2021. The Freycinet Visitor Gateway Project’s been at about $14 million since 2019, off the top of my head. Inflation’s gone up. The projects are not any smaller. At what point are you going to update the costings for those projects?
Mr DUIGAN – I believe when we have updated numbers, fully scoped and have fresh numbers. I am happy to be open and transparent, but I don’t have a number to share with you today. The number we have allocated to the project is $40 million. That will be the case until we have another number.
Ms BADGER – Until you exceed that number or like this. This is the third project. It goes back to the Mt Field project as well. You have all this money allocated, you’re charging senior citizens extra to get into a national park, and you don’t have any outline of the details of how much the itemised details of any of these projects actually are to what the updated cost is. We’re in a budget crisis, so it’s really important, minister, that Tasmanians understand where the money is going.
Mr DUIGAN – As I say, we have allocated $40 million to the Next Iconic Walk. When there is something else to say in that space, I will be happy to provide that.
Ms BADGER – On the Freycinet Gateway, the $14 million, I’m seeking to understand whether included in that cost is going to be the sewerage connectivity from any kind of bathroom facilities at the gateway area into the Coles Bay system. I’m sure you’d appreciate there’s quite an issue there opposite where the gateway is proposed going into Muirs Beach, which is one of the popular swimming areas, and the exact amount of money that’s going to be allocated to bitumen and concrete.
Mr DUIGAN – I must alert everybody that the secretary will be stepping out for the rest of our session, I believe.
Mr JACOBI – Yes, I apologise.
Mr DUIGAN – Off to other places. Around the detail of Freycinet and what’s contemplated there, Sophie, if you wouldn’t mind.
Ms MULLER – I think the gateway is a concept plan at this point in time. In terms of specific costings around concrete and so on, we don’t have that level of detail in relation to that project.
Ms BADGER – I understand you do have that detail.
Ms MULLER – As I said, it’s a concept plan. We’ve done some preliminary costings of that plan, but the plan itself isn’t finalised. We undertook community engagement earlier in the year. We received feedback from the community through a range of information sessions we held in Coles Bay, and we are working through the feedback that we’ve received and continuing to input into the concept plan before we move into detailed design work.
Ms BADGER – Minister, in the Tyndall Range EIA, there’s a section on that that attributes the area to being a particularly important dark sky region, which it absolutely is. There’s a phrase in there that says ‘A dark sky sanctuary for all Tasmania’. Are Parks intending to nominate this area for dark‑sky protection formally? If so, why not the south-west, which is just waiting for a signature? Most of the volunteer work behind all of that has already been done for Parks and it’s an area of incredible cultural significance, as I know that you’re well aware, minister.
Mr DUIGAN – I’m going to say not to my knowledge, in regard to dark sky at Tyndall. I think it will be pretty dark out there, and without wishing to sound flippant, I don’t think there is a proposal that we are considering there. As to why not in the south-west, I’m not sure that I’ve got anything there, do I? Do I have anything in front of us at the moment? Noting that the south-west is already one of the darkest places on the planet, and you would expect it to continue to be so, given its current status as a World Heritage area.
Ms BADGER – Just to be clear, minister, there is a proposal before – perhaps not you personally, but certainly the department and I know you’ve been approached by at least three different people or groups and organisations seeking that. So that’s not quite accurate, what you said before.
I’m also just curious: up in Narawntapu there was a ground parrot found in the area for the first time in a long time, which is great news. However, in the week that that was found, there was a planned fuel‑reduction burn that was going to happen around some of the button grass of Frenchman’s Cap, which was peak breeding ground for these birds – or habitat, I should say. In this serious time for them – luckily that got called off because of the wet weather – but how on earth did that decision‑making come, that that was an appropriate time for that area, given the birds there?
Mr DUIGAN – Look, I will defer to Sophie in terms of that. I would just pause to make the point about the value of fuel‑reduction burning, particularly as we are seeing the west coast and perhaps landscapes that weren’t traditionally threatened by fire being somewhat more threatened by fire. I’m supportive of the fuel reduction burning program –
Ms BADGER – At the cost of threatened species?
Mr DUIGAN – No, that’s to put a word in my mouth.
Ms BADGER – That’s a question.
Mr DUIGAN – No. What I would say is I’m supportive of the program. How we schedule these burns, I would hand to Sophie about what are the inputs.
Ms MULLER – I’m not aware of the specific details of that particular planned burn, but I certainly know that as we’re planning planned burns, there’s a lot of work that goes into assessing and seeking the advice of specialists, including ecologists, across the department, and that really helps to shape those planned burns.
Ultimately, it is about weighing up against the value and benefit of planned burns as part of that process, but we’ll certainly take on advice of specialists in the plans.
