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House of Assembly Wednesday 4 March 2020

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House of Assembly Wednesday 4 March 2020 Wednesday 4 March 2020 The Speaker, Ms Hickey, took the Chair at 10 a.m., acknowledged the Traditional People and read Prayers. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS Madam SPEAKER - Honourable members, I draw your attention to some very special guests in our Gallery. They are grade 6 students from St Therese's Catholic School. Welcome to parliament. Members - Hear, hear. QUESTIONS Spirit of Tasmania - Docking in Melbourne Ms WHITE to PREMIER, Mr GUTWEIN [10.03 a.m.] The Spirit of Tasmania vessels provide a vital lifeline between Tasmania and the mainland for tourism, freight and domestic travel. Part of the value of that service is that it docks at Station Pier, close to the Melbourne CBD and with central access to freight routes to the east and the west. Last year during GBEs, your infrastructure minister and leadership rival, Michael Ferguson, refused to detail whether infrastructure upgrades would be required at Station Pier to accommodate the larger ships. Can you confirm that you are now preparing to abandon Station Pier and move the Spirit of Tasmania vessels to Geelong? With negotiations with the Port of Geelong understood to be well advanced, when were you planning on telling Spirit of Tasmania users of this major disruption? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. You are right. The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport raised this matter at Estimates last year. He clearly made the point that, at that time, Station Pier and the arrangements with the port was becoming very expensive. Quite obviously, as a major government business, one that provides a very important route for transport of both visitors and freight to the state of Victoria, it is very important that we have a cost-effective place to dock the Spirits. From the negotiations we have been having about Station Pier, it is quite obvious that VicPorts want to price gouge. They are looking to take every last cent they possibly can from Tasmanian businesses and customers and those who want to travel to Tasmania. To be clear, we make no apologies as far as the TT-Line is concerned. This Government is concerned with looking at alternative options. That is always something that a business should do. No final decision has been made, but obviously we are very concerned by the price increases that are being proposed for the Spirit of Tasmania vessels. We will continue to negotiate in terms 1 Wednesday 4 March 2020 of those. Make no mistake, what this Government has firmly fixed in its mind, is that we want to ensure that we can get freight to and from Tasmania via the Spirits at an appropriate and sustainable cost and, importantly, that customers, passengers - the hundreds of thousands of people who travel on the Spirits each year - can come to Tasmania and pay what is a reasonable and an appropriate price. We make no apologies for looking at other options and we will continue to do so. When we get to a point when a decision about either a cost-competitive arrangement at Station Pier is arrived at or, conversely, we are frustrated to the point that we cannot get a reasonable outcome, then we will discuss other options with the Tasmanian people. Spirit of Tasmania - Docking in Melbourne Ms WHITE to PREMIER, Mr GUTWEIN [10.06 a.m.] Your secrecy surrounding the vital Spirit of Tasmania service is completely unacceptable. This service does not belong to you; it belongs to the people of Tasmania. Hundreds of Tasmanian businesses, employing thousands of workers, rely on the reliable and accessible service that the Spirits provide. Moving a service to Geelong will add considerable travel time for freight vehicles and people travelling into the city of Melbourne or further east, up the coast. There is also the brand recognition that will be lost from having the Spirits dock in such a high profile location as St Kilda. Can you guarantee that the Spirits will not lose customers as a result of moving the vessels to Geelong? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. What I will guarantee is that we will look for the most competitive outcome that we can possibly get. As far as VicPorts is concerned, we will continue to engage with them, but we are examining options, should we not be able to get to an appropriate landing point. The key point is that our Spirits are a valuable lifeline for Tasmania. They bring passengers and freight to this state and take passengers and freight from this state to the mainland. What we have to arrive at is an appropriate cost setting - Members interjecting. Madam SPEAKER - Order, through the Chair, please. Mr GUTWEIN - I come back to the point I made yesterday. The prophets of doom on the other side are looking for any issue they can find that might provide some concern in the Tasmanian community. It is clear that nothing has been hidden here. Mr O'Byrne - You are already docking at Geelong; you are already talking about it. Madam SPEAKER - Order, Mr O'Byrne. 2 Wednesday 4 March 2020 Mr GUTWEIN - The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport very transparently raised this matter last year. Last year it was reported that we are in negotiations with Station Pier and VicPorts. Clearly from that, in terms of the concerns that the minister raised, of course we are looking at options. Donations Disclosure Laws Ms O'CONNOR to PREMIER, Mr GUTWEIN [10.09 a.m.] As you know, perhaps more than any member of your Cabinet, your party's last state election win was bankrolled by the gambling industry. According to the Australian Electoral Commission returns in February this year, the source of less than a quarter of the money your party received from corporate interests has been declared. Do you acknowledge what ABC Fact Check confirmed: that Tasmania has the weakest donations disclosure laws in the country? While your predecessor agreed to reform and review the Electoral Act, tepid and drawn out though it is, you appear to have walked away from any strengthening of Tasmania's nation-leading weakest donations disclosure laws. Premier, what is it: a basic lack of ethics, or a lack of courage? Are you afraid you cannot win without the millions in secret donations from your corporate backers? Are you that scared of a fair fight? You do not want Tasmanians to know who funds your campaigns and what your backers, like the Tasmanian Hospitality Association, might want in return for their contributions. The source of that $4 million you received was not declared. ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Clark and the Leader of the Greens for her question. The former premier had indicated that he would look at this matter, and I have said publicly that I will do the same. I want to make the point that very clearly, what the Leader of the Greens - the member for Clark - is advocating for is public funding - Ms O'Connor - Every state and territory in Australia and the Commonwealth has public funding, by the way. Mr GUTWEIN - We do not have public funding in Tasmania, which means that we do not take money from health or education or other essential services. It is clear that in the election we had two competing policies. One was advocated by Labor and the Greens, which would have shut pubs and clubs down, and would have cost jobs and caused social dislocation in many regional and rural areas. On the other hand, we had a policy that strengthened the employment opportunities and the investment opportunities for many of those businesses in regional and rural locations. Ours was a job-creating policy. Theirs was a job-destroying policy. Ms O'CONNOR - Point of order, standing order 45 on relevance. Perhaps the Premier could go to the question, which is: what is it, a basic lack of ethics, or lack of courage, that stops you from enacting donations reform? 3 Wednesday 4 March 2020 Madam SPEAKER - As you appreciate, that is not a point of order. I ask the Premier to continue. Mr GUTWEIN - Thank you, Madam Speaker. I can understand her wanting to interject and stop me from explaining exactly what the Greens are advocating here. Ms O'Connor - The question was not about us. Mr GUTWEIN - Again, the interjection. Bingo! What the member for Clark is calling for is public funding. She has herself indicated - Ms O'CONNOR - Point of order, Madam Speaker. The Premier is being misleading about our position and he knows it. There is a suite of reforms that revolve around donations disclosure, and public funding is but one of them. Madam SPEAKER - That is not a point of order either, so please proceed. Mr GUTWEIN - I did not think it was a point of order, to be frank, because you said yourself a moment ago that every other jurisdiction gets public funding. We do not in Tasmania, which means we do not take money from health or education or essential services to fund elections. That is the difference. At the election, people had a very clear choice. They could vote for a job-creating policy on this side of the House, or a job-destroying policy on that side of the House. Ms O'Connor - Who pays the piper? Mr GUTWEIN - Who pays the piper? You want the piper to be paid by taxpayers in Tasmania. That is who you want the piper to be paid by. I have said clearly that I will look at this matter, but I am very concerned that the taxpayer will end up funding elections, which is exactly what the Leader of the Greens - Ms O'CONNOR - Point of order, Madam Speaker.
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