13 June 2024
Topics: Possibility of Antarctic Science Program leaving Tasmania
E&OE
Senator Duniam:
Today I’m very disturbed by the revelations that Tanya Plibersek is so disingenuous about her claims that she wants to keep Tasmania and more importantly, Hobart, as the Gateway for Antarctica that she happened to provide her correspondence with the Premier to a local news outlet before she even gave it to the Tasmanian Government. How serious a Minister can be to go and do that? There are hundreds of jobs at stake here. It’s a $240 million sector, that’s what it’s worth to our economy, and the fact that the Minister thinks it’s ok to go and brief out to local journalists a threat of this nature before she even talks to the Tasmanian Government I think puts paid to her claim that she’s serious about maintaining Tasmania as the gateway to the Antarctic. This comes on top of her inability to progress the approval of the MMG tailings dam which is now at least a couple of years bogged down in red tape. It comes on top of the inability to even tell us when she will make a decision in relation to salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour. Tanya Plibersek and her Tasmanian Labor team have got a job to do and that is to find solutions to the problems that are being faced around issues like the Macquarie Point wharf arrangement that will be the berthing for the RSV Nuyina. But there are no solutions, just politics and more importantly, I think, a real threat that we will lose our gateway status because of what she has now belled the cat on.
Journalist:
What about the claims in her letter about the cost blowouts and what it’s going to cost the Federal taxpayer?
Senator Duniam:
Well, there is no excuse for government agencies, state or federal, to allow things to have become so protracted and it is the job of decision makers including Ms Plibersek to get to a solution, which is why I find it strange that instead of picking up the phone to the Premier and saying, ‘hey mate, we’ve got a problem here and we need to resolve it’, she instead writes a letter, provides it to the media, then sends it to the Premier without any warning. So is Ms Plibersek serious about resolving this issue and keeping Tasmania as the Antarctic Gateway? Is Julie Collins serious about ensuring that AAD staff maintain their jobs in her electorate? Or is it all politics for them? That’s what remains unclear and I’m concerned, sadly, that this is a political game. People’s jobs and an entire industry is now at stake as a result of these actions.
Journalist:
You’ve what’s at stake for them. Is it a confusing move given the AAD’s just signed a lease at Kingston and the money provided in the Mac Point renewal requires the state to build the necessary infrastructure at Mac Point. It seems like everything’s in motion, doesn’t it?
Senator Duniam:
So the concerning thing is that the Government talk a talk, but they don’t walk the walk, the Federal Government. They talk about a commitment to Hobart being the gateway for the Antarctic but when it comes to actually locking things down, there is no commitment to doing so. As I say, if they were genuine in their commitment, there would be a behind the scenes discussion with the Tasmanian government about how to resolve these issues. There hasn’t been that. It has been all done in public, which is concerning for me. I believe that the Australian Government is gearing up to start tearing up agreements around this and start relocating Antarctic services to other parts of the country. That’s what I’m concerned about. If they were genuine about working with Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government, if the Tasmanian Labor members and senators; Julie Collins, Carol Brown, Catryna Bilyk; were serious about a future for Antarctic services in Tasmania, then they’d be standing up saying we’ve got to fix this rather than playing politics in the media.
Journalist:
Will we even be having this conversation if there wasn’t some level of inaction from the State Government though?
Senator Duniam:
Well, I don’t think there’s any excuse for the way in which TasPorts has conducted itself. We saw that in the Antarctic inquiry and their last minute move to prevent the Nuyina from being able to travel under the bridge to refuel. But at the end of the day, the job of a minister, the Federal Environment Minister and any other executive office holder is to solve problems, not to just leave it to bureaucrats to nut out Tanya Plibersek on her watch, she’s been Environment Minister for nigh on two years now, has allowed this to drift on and she says she’s becoming increasingly alarmed. Why hasn’t she picked up the phone? Why, importantly, why hasn’t Catryna Bilyk who was at the Senate inquiry, why hasn’t Carol Brown who is an Assistant Minister, why hasn’t Julie Collins, a cabinet minister, stood up and said, ‘Tanya, we’ve got to fix this’? None of them have done their job, and now all of this is at risk.
Journalist:
Thank you.