Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to give my contribution on behalf of the Greens and thank the honourable Leader of the Opposition for bringing this forward. I think it’s an important motion in relation to the ferries and something that we should be talking about and shouldn’t forget. There are a lot of learnings, as the Treasurer has suggested, and I will go into that.
I’ll just pick up on a couple of things that Mr Willie mentioned. He spoke about the Public Accounts Committee discussion around TASCORP and the information that came out of the committee’s deliberations last week and TASCORP members talking to the committee was illuminating. There was a massive weight of ballooning debt and it’s a significant issue for Tasmania that there will be this ongoing weight of debt dragging our economy down in relation to this and we cannot get away from that. We cannot get away from how big an impost the TT‑Line’s ferries debacle has been for Tasmania.
Minister Abetz talks about the cost blowout and reasons in relation to those and I think it is important that the government has taken heed of some of those things. There are always things to learn and it would be an imprudent government not to take heed of some of those things. We know that during the ferries debacle, and with that persistent questioning from Mr Winter and Mr Willie in particular, there was a clear finding of one shareholder minister and that was the problem. We had one shareholder minister who was also the Treasurer, and we know full well that the Treasurer resigned as a result of that and gave up his portfolio. It might be seen as a scalp, but it’s clear that the any state‑owned company or GBE needs to have that clear line of sight with shareholder ministers. There needs to be two shareholders ministers. I’m not sure if there is for TASCORP. Are there two shareholder ministers?
Mr Abetz – For TASCORP? No.
Ms BURNET – However, regarding the ferries and TT‑Line there have been learnings, and it is a good thing that that has occurred, despite how expensive that was for the government.
Minister Abetz also talked about the cost blowout and how COVID and wars – all of those things – had a significant impact on how much this was costing our state. What hasn’t come up is that cost in time and those opportunities that have have befallen tourism operators. I often think about the north‑west tourism operators when they were expecting many years ago to have a 20 per cent increased capacity, I think it is, for TT‑Line. They planned for those changes and that increased capacity of the Spirits, and yet there this was like the building started in 2017 and they are seven to eight years behind schedule at this point. We don’t have them yet. The gantries are not in place and there are still a lot of ocean to cross before Spirit V is here and we have both Spirits in operation.
The saga of the Spirit of Tasmania replacement program has made headlines around the world. It’s almost a case study in major project mismanagement. Seven to eight years behind schedule. As I said, it’s not all the government’s fault, but there are certainly a lot of concerns in relation to this.
Why would TasPorts and TT‑Line be treating each other like commercial rivals? We saw that writ large and they were trying to squeeze each other instead of pulling in the same direction. Again, getting back to governance, the review of governance for GBEs and SOCs has been very important because the document that I saw was, I think, from 2007, for how the governance worked for these GBEs and SOCs. So, having that reviewed was well overdue.
The latest debacle with the fenders has also been because of this tension between TasPorts and TT‑Line. It’s really unforgivable. Again, no line of sight by responsible members of the government. It’s an absolute debacle. Somehow with the big numbers battered about with this project, $9 million for this alteration starts to sound like a drop in the ocean compared to some of the other sums that have been sunk into this project. How many more issues are still to come? We are seeing this unfold in slow motion like a trainwreck.
There are casualties along the way. Again, I go back to the consequences on hospitality businesses in the north‑west tourism. Think of the Tarkine and all the opportunities that could be opened up for tourism ventures. There was an article on the ABC online where they interviewed Prema Smith, a business owner in Devonport, who relies on those ferries. Unfortunately, for so many businesses, there is this ongoing strain on their businesses as a result. I don’t know if the work has been done, but it would be interesting to see how many businesses have folded as a direct result of the ferries stuff‑up.
Our state debt is blowing out. We are heading for $13 billion debt across the four years estimates and that continues to rise. TT‑Line itself has over $1 billion in debt and has had an extra half a billion bailout. How on earth will this ever be paid back? Will it amount to increased fares? There are lots of questions still to be answered.
How can we possibly believe that lessons have been learned and that this government could be trusted to manage another major project with this track record? Again, I go back to the stadium. We have an example of TT‑Line as an important infrastructure project, which is needed for all Tasmanians to get on and off the island, for businesses, for families to be reunited. Yet, when we look at the stadium, it is another infrastructure project, but it’s an unnecessary one will that will not benefit all Tasmania, mark my words.
The ferries’ replacement is critical to Tasmania, and a little bit out of out-of-date, but it was required to meet maritime standards to reduce emissions. Those things were all put in place by the former board. We are still waiting for this to be delivered.
The Greens support this motion and we welcome debate around it because it is important to point out that the government still has a long way to delivering infrastructure projects well.
