Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Deputy Speaker, we can see from this Greens’ matter of public importance that we have flushed out an enormous number of questions. Labor have raised some really important ones. The honourable member for Lyons, Ms Badger, and for Clark, Mr Bayley, have also added to the questions that the Greens are asking the government.
What we heard and what we’ve discovered is this is an extraordinary situation that has developed and we and the people of Tasmania really know nothing about it. We’re hearing crickets about what is essentially, as the Premier said this morning, a $2 billion investment. This reminds me back at the beginning of Marinus, where big numbers are being thrown around and overseas investors are being discussed, but we don’t have any evidence about the implications for Tasmania, and we don’t have any answers or transparency.
Given the history for Tasmania, especially given what the Liberals have done with this budget over the last 11 years, where Treasury said we’re looking at $142 billion of debt, people expect and demand answers. We have a right to get some answers from the government about how they’re managing our critical infrastructure and how they’re looking after our resources, our environment and our electricity-generation resources into the future.
Ms Finlay said some very good points. Why aren’t we hearing from the Energy minister? Perhaps the Energy minister can respond to whether there have been onerous contracts opened up already. How is it possible that established industries in Tasmania aren’t able to get additional power generation, but a Singaporean company who walks in and suggests a $2-billion investment are able to whistle up what they need? It feels like when somebody waves big numbers at the Premier and the Liberals that part of their brains stop working. They stop asking the questions. It is a bit of a cargo cult mentality that operates, and has for generations in Tasmania. We see the big shiny thing and we go great.
It could be great. It’s very clear the Greens are open to these opportunities. We just want to know what it’s going to cost, who’s going to pay, what resources are going to be used, and what resources will not be available for other companies, for example Boyer, Bell Bay Aluminium, or any other industry. We need to know the opportunity costs.
I make the point that Ms Badger made earlier. The Premier and the minister for Information Science and Technology have talked about strategies and so on. But what we’ve seen from the government on the specifics of legislating, on regulating, on the physical infrastructure and the environmental impacts, is just a bunch of dot points. That is not the strategy that we need for Tasmania. Before the government launches into full-scale support for the current proposal, Tasmanians expect to have the answers. The Office of the Coordinator General has been working on this since at least the 2018 when they announced they’re report on the action strategy for AI.
The government has had coming up to nine years, nearly a decade of public money going into thinking, but where is their actual response to the proposed changes to regulation, legislation and, indeed, integration with other industries for the coming AI future, it is here now. With respect, the minister has held up a strategy that is a bunch of dot points and doesn’t have any of the detail that people need. We need to see the details for the questions that members have been asking today. We shouldn’t be taking any investor, at any price. We should see our resources as the member for Bass has said as precious. They are precious in the in the in the ecosystem changes that the collapse of ecosystems that are happening in different parts of the planet. They will affect us. Just as we’re being affected by the Middle East oil shock, we are being affected by changes in ecosystems nationally, and we need the government to be on the front foot and providing us with information –
