The Gutwein Government's local manufacturing job creation rhetoric has been exposed as a cruel hoax with the Premier announcing that after nine months of indecision about the TT Line replacement vessels, he is heading back to Finnish shipbuilder RMC.
Shadow Infrastructure Minister Shane Broad said Tasmania is back to square one in the crucial but long-delayed infrastructure project with today's news amounting to a major, humiliating backflip by Peter Gutwein.
"The result of this report is that the Premier will now go back to Finland and try to negotiate a contract he already had in front of him nine months ago but chose to tear up," Dr Broad said.
"The Premier has put Tasmania in a terrible negotiating position and must explain how much more the ships will cost as a result of the delay.
"This decision is actually yet another infrastructure project delay and a broken promise to deliver the first ships by the end of this year.
"Peter Gutwein's dithering has been a major disappointment for the tourism industry, the freight sector and ship builders and has likely cost Tasmanian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in increased costs.
"We know from Saul Eslake's report that each year of delay means at least $350 million in tourism dollars will not be spent in Tasmania and 6,000 jobs will not be created.
"Given their abysmal track record how can the Liberal Government possibly be trusted to deliver the new ships in 2023-24?"
Shane Broad MP
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure
