Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Thank you, Honourable Speaker. Since the 1990s, a vision for a walkway that connects Sandy Bay to the city at Salamanca has been a tantalising concept for local walkers, runners, cyclists and supporters of a connected, livable and healthy capital city. This is part of the world that I know well, having lived in Battery Point for a few years in the early 2000s, being a periodic paddler around the Battery Point coastline and now a regular cyclist from the south into the city. I love this last little bit of the coastline before turning west into the concrete walls and warehouses of the Port of Hobart.
So, I declare an interest; I’m a strong and long supporter of the walkway, as are the Greens, on record since day dot, with support for public access from the public parks at either end of Battery Point, Errol Flynn Reserve to AJ White Park – and I would benefit. Whether it’s cycling to or from work or walking to access waterfront parks, a shared walkway would be a significant asset for both me, personally, and for all Hobartians. A walkway has been repeatedly recommended as important public infrastructure and has popped up in numerous reports and plans for the city. With UTAS anchoring back to STEM facilities at the Sandy Bay campus, active transport routes between the city and Sandy Bay facilities have become even more important.
On Monday, in a welcome move to preserve the opportunity for a Battery Point walkway, the Hobart City Council voted against abandoning the project and instead called on minister Duigan, the minister responsible for issuing licences and leases on Crown land to be transparent about the terms of licences for marine facilities that cross Crown land, the subject of the current proposal for this public infrastructure. There are 15 licences for marine facilities, mainly private jetties attached to foreshore residences above the route of the walkway. The complications these licences create – a private right of way over public land between the low- and high-tide lines – has long been held up as an insurmountable barrier that renders the walkway concept redundant.
But why should they? Why should a temporary licence affording private rights over public land preclude the delivery of public infrastructure on public land? Why should it, when the latest walkway design, developed by renowned engineer Jim Gandy, provides for ongoing access to the private jetties, crossing the walkway and providing a win‑win for all involved? To be clear, the latest proposal is an onshore plan for the public walkway to be built almost entirely on the inter‑tidal zone on public land. This is not the offshore proposal rejected by the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal in 2015. That proposal sought to establish the walkway outside of the end of the jetties, creating visual impact and vessel accessibility issues that the tribunal was not prepared to accept.
The current proposal advanced by Friends of Battery Point Walkway is supported by the majority of the council and widely endorsed by the broader community. A walkway full stop is a popular proposition. The 2015 rejected proposal received 434 representations, a record at the time, and 77 per cent were supportive. In 2025, the current proposal was polled as enjoying 89 per cent community support.
So, what’s the way through so public amenity can be enhanced and private access can be considered? Clearly the ball is in minister Duigan’s court. The Leader of Government Business last night updated the House on the status of marine facility licences interacting with the proposed walkway in response to a question from the Member for Clark. Fifteen licences with commencement dates ranging from 2013 to 2026, and they’re for 25 year terms. Licence templates are updated by Crown Land Services from time to time.
That’s some information, but not all that the Hobart City Council voted to seek. It’s looking for the terms of the licences themselves to confirm the inclusion of break clauses and understand the ability of the government to play an active role in facilitating the walkway by negotiating access across the licensed areas with licence holders. It’s widely understood that each licence includes a break clause allowing the minister with three months notice to amend or end the terms.
Clearly, this is an important power yet to be exercised to address the long‑standing hurdles presented as a blockage to progressing the walkway. Given the popularity of the project, its demonstrable public good, its proposal on public land, and a solution that can deliver for all, it would be a perverse outcome if 15 individual licences precluded a public walkway delivering for the people in perpetuity. This is too good an opportunity to miss. We Greens call on minister Duigan to work with the Hobart City Council and residents to find a way through and finally deliver this city‑changing project.
