When Premier Jeremy Rockliff finally fronted up to face the PAC hearing after slipping out at the 11th hour last week we thought he would have at least brought some answers with him.
How wrong we were.
Today’s hearing made it clear the Premier hasn’t learned a thing about his government’s handling of the Spirits fiasco.
The Premier was unable to provide any details about when he first knew of the $80 million dollar bailout paid to RMC during caretaker period.
He still didn’t know any details about the cost of berthing Spirit IV in Scotland, despite the fact the ship is setting sail from Finland this weekend.
Today’s display of ignorance follows Question Time this week when the Premier couldn’t answer serious questions about TT-Line breaching the terms of its primary loan agreement with TasCorp, and how that will affect the GBE’s creditworthiness, or if any penalties or sanctions were imposed.
He also infamously didn’t know the Berth was behind schedule, even though work hadn’t started and there was no contract in place, and didn’t know until late April that the ships wouldn’t be operating this summer.
The fiasco has since become an international embarrassment for Tasmania, with the business community declaring it would be difficult to ever trust this government again.
Given this, you’d think the Premier – who is also the Minister for Tourism – would be across his brief by now.
Tasmanians deserve better.
Anita Dow MP
Deputy Labor Leader
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure
