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Mr
WILL HODGMAN
(Franklin -
Leader of the Opposition) - How on earth did we come
to this, Premier? How is it that the Lennon
Government can walk into the House today and say
that what will be a $2 billion project, the biggest
single private investment ever to be contemplated in
Tasmania, cannot even reach a stage of being
assessed? A project that has had tens of millions of
dollars expended in the preparation of materials for
the assessment process and the Premier tells us
today that it cannot even get to stage one. What
does it say about your Government's capacity to
facilitate and manage a major project of this type?
And what does it say about our planning system?
In this House this
week we have been debating an increasing and ongoing
catalogue of failures and this is the most serious
to date, because the Lennon Government has been
complicit in a series of events that has thrown this
project off the rails and you must take some
responsibility for it. We have heard nothing from
the Premier about that. He comes into the House
today purporting to be the saviour. It is a bit rich
when we know that you have been complicit in sending
this thing right off the rails. And how do we know
it? Because the former assessor, Mr Green, says so.
He says that your interference, incompetence and
bungling have compromised this process. I will just
note in passing that we do need to contemplate what
this says about our planning system. A planning
system has to provide certainty, consistency and
clear time frames, otherwise no investor is ever
going to look seriously at this State.
So, Premier, what are
you going to do about our planning system? It
clearly requires some attention. Until very recently
it has been neglected over eight years of Labor
government. We are now starting to see very dire
circumstances arise. You have to accept some
responsibility for this going pear-shaped. Your
complacency in maintaining that things are working
fine is now shown to be false.
We should ensure that
there is consistency and certainty in our processes
and that due process is followed so that we have
certainty for investors and consistency so that the
Tasmanian public can be confident that process is
being properly served. I will make the point that
good process is not about letting continue an
open-ended argument that meanders indefinitely, that
is subject to hijacking by opponents, that provides
a forum for any aggrieved person to come into and
stall the project. That is not good process. People
want certainty. It is not about a war of attrition.
It most definitely should not be subject to
political interference, or vulnerable to government
bungling either. But that is exactly what has
happened here and look at the mess that we are now
in.
I want to firmly and
clearly place on record the State Opposition's
position on the pulp mill. It is clear and it is
consistent. The State Opposition has long supported
the construction in Tasmania of a pulp mill that is
socially, environmentally and economically sound. We
have said for years, going well back before my time
in this Parliament, that we support the construction
of a pulp mill that meets world-class guidelines.
We support the forest
industry. We strongly support the notion of
value-adding to our timber resource; keeping our
resource here; keeping and developing jobs in the
industry and the forest sector; technological
advancement in the forest sector; and diversity -
and we demand world's best practice. Our support for
a pulp mill in this State is based on exactly that -
that it is subject to rigorous assessment and
meeting the highest standards to protect
Tasmania's social, economic and environmental
qualities, within the guidelines which have been set
down and established in this instance.
So our support for
this mill is contingent on the proponent satisfying
those guidelines and I think most Tasmanians would
agree that it is essential. So our position is
clear, it is consistent and has not changed. We are
unable to comment in any detail on what the Premier
is proposing because he has not given us any detail
today. We will await the Government's advice and
indeed will demand further information. We will ask
questions, including in the House today, in relation
to what the Premier is proposing.
We will not be rushed.
Too much is at stake and a lot of what was raised in
the Premier's statement today requires further
scrutiny. The reasons for that are obvious. We do
not trust you to get it right. You have shown
already how much you have compromised this project.
Your track record is unimpressive and we will look
very carefully at anything that you propose. We will
not accept compromises and we will not accept damage
control on the run either. There is no doubt that
public confidence will have been dented as a result
of your Government's interference in this process.
Obviously we want further detail and we look forward
to taking this up with you further.
[Time expired]
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