Duigan MIA on Liberty Bell Bay, will he show up for jobs at Bell Bay Aluminium?

Minister Duigan’s conspicuous absence at Liberty Bell Bay’s time of need raises serious questions about his ability to stand up for critical jobs at the neighbouring Bell Bay Aluminium as it continues to negotiate a workable power deal with Hydro.

When 200 workers in his own electorate had their jobs hinging on a new energy deal for the smelter, one might have expected the Energy Minister to fight to the end to save them.

Not Minister Duigan.

Instead, he was found to be completely missing in action, and we haven’t heard a word from him publicly about the smelter or its workers for months.

Has the Minister even been on site throughout this period of uncertainty?

Did he even try to push for a power deal to be reached?

Is he in hiding because he’s embarrassed his government didn’t do more?

The Government’s claims that they have “thrown everything” at keeping the smelter going are hard to believe given the commentary about an energy deal being the sticking point of negotiations.

Its own Ministerial Charter says Hydro should support economic growth and job creation. That clearly didn’t happen at Liberty Bell Bay and raises serious questions about the Premier and Energy Minister’s control over Government Businesses.

Tasmanians have already seen what happened at Liberty Bell Bay when Minister went missing. Is he going to let that happen to the jobs at Bell Bay Aluminium too?