With Spirit of Tasmania V being handed over to TT-Line and the Tasmanian Government today, Labor is calling on Jeremy Rockliff to guarantee he will bring her straight home and not try and lease it out like Spirit IV

 

Spirit of Tasmania IV has been holed up in Scotland for over 6 months. She is set to leave Scotland within a week, yet somehow Jeremy Rockliff still can’t tell Tasmanians how much taxpayer money he’s spent hiding her there.

 

The failed Premier became so desperate to keep Spirit IV on the other side of the world that he even tried to lease the ship out as a floating refugee camp – a practice slammed by the British Red Cross as unacceptable.

 

The latest official cost update Tasmanians received was at the end of March, when TT-Line revealed nearly $3 million had been spent keeping Spirit IV in Scotland up to the end of February.

 

We can’t afford to see the same expensive PR exercise play out with Spirit V.

 

Labor has already committed to having both ships home by Christmas.

 

Can Jeremy Rockliff do the same today and can he tell us how much hiding Spirit IV has actually cost Tasmanians?