While the new Spirits of Tasmania remain hidden in Europe,  Right to Information documents have shown that Tasmanian taxpayers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to deliver local content to Finland. 

According to TT-Line, the total freight costs for transporting their portion of local goods to Finland are $316,000. That figure doesn’t include any costs incurred by sending Tasmanian workers over to Europe to help with the installation.

And while the document reveals the freight cost for TT-Line’s portion of the local content purchase, the government is still yet to reveal the freight cost for RMC’s portion which is four times larger.

Premier Rockliff needs to update Tasmanian taxpayers on this additional cost.

Premier Rockliff could have brought the ships home by now, but instead he has chosen to waste millions hiding them on the other side of the world in a pathetic attempt to save face politically.

TCCI CEO Michael Bailey famously declared that it would be very difficult for business to trust the Rockliff government again after the Liberals bungled the Spirits replacement project.

Enough is enough, it’s time for Premier Rockliff to bring our Spirits home, fit them out locally and stop forcing Tasmanians to pay for the incompetence of his government.

Attached: https://taslabor.org.au/media/b5vb2vr3/freight-rti.pdf

Anita Dow MP
Deputy Labor Leader
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure