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Is there anything that governments can’t stuff up? From Canberra down to pretty much every state and territory, governments over the last decade have royally screwed up massive infrastructure projects. Now Tasmania has joined the unenviable club.
In what is labelled “Australia’s biggest infrastructure stuff up”, two new $900m ferries will be leased out or stored for up to two years because their new berth is not ready.
Tasmania’s ferries fiasco deepened on Thursday after the state government revealed the two new Spirit of Tasmania Bass Strait passenger and car ferries may not have a suitable berth built until February 2027.
And you thought the Cook Strait ferry fiascos were a benchmark in government incompetence. This is a massive drag on Tasmania’s economy, where the ferries are a lifeline for not just tourism but freight.
It is estimated each year of delay in deploying the new larger capacity Finnish-built vessels on the busy Geelong-Devonport run will cost the state $350m in lost revenue.
The extraordinary failure to build a wharf capable of accommodating the new ships, despite years of notice, has already cost Treasurer Michael Ferguson and two ferry bosses their jobs.
It’s an utter shit-show, all right – ‘Australia’s biggest infrastructure stuff up’? Not by a long shot.
The National Broadband Network: Telstra, a private company, originally offered to build an NBN for under a billion dollars. But government insisted on getting involved, and the budget jumped to $15 billion. To date, it’s cost anywhere between $29 and $50 billion (the actual cost is a state secret).
Snowy 2.0: not only a flawed concept (pumped hydro) from the start, but now running at six times its original budget and six years behind schedule. The boring machines have been literally bogged for an entire year. Of some 16 km of tunnel, so far just 440m has been bored.
The Westgate Tunnel: this is the granddaddy of Victoria’s monumentally failed infrastructure projects. So far, its three years late and $4.5 billion over budget. Then there’s the North East Link: $10 billion over budget. Metro Tunnel: $1.5 billion. Then there’s the not-even-begun Suburban Rail Loop.
Queensland’s Paradise Dam: built at a cost of $240 million in 2003, the dam has already had major rebuilds costing billions and now has to be rebuilt completely.
So, to damn them with faint praise, the Tasmanian government’s stuff-up is looking pretty small potatoes by comparison. Labor opposition leader Dean Winter is desperately blowing smoke up our arses by claiming it’s ‘the biggest infrastructure stuff up in Australian history’. Sure, it’s bad, but Tasmania is frankly a rank amateur compared to the mainland states or Canberra.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff on Thursday said an expert report into how to best respond to the “extremely regrettable” situation had now advised the new Berth 3 may not be ready until February 2027.
Previous plans for a temporary solution at a nearby wharf had been rejected as too slow, costly and risky, given the proximity to commercial shipping.
Instead, attempts would be made to build Berth 3 by October 2026, allowing the new ships into service for the 2026-27 peak summer season, while leasing them out until then.
The first new ferry is due to leave Finland in coming weeks and the second is due to arrive by the second half of 2025.
And what are they going to do with their shiny new ferries, without suitable berths?
While leasing could provide some income to offset cost blowouts – and to fund $25m tourism industry compensation announced this week – the government conceded it may not be “financial beneficial”.
In this case, the government said it would find a “medium-term storage option” and direct the state-owned port authority to provide it for free.
Once upon a time, Tasmania was run by visionary yet competent leaders like ‘Electric Eric’ Reece, who oversaw the construction of the state’s hydro network. Although, true, a briefly muted plan of using nukes to blast craters for new dams was a bit off the charts.
Unfortunately, we no longer live in an age of competent government.
