Time to drop the Spirits fuel surcharge

Labor is calling on the Liberals to instruct TT-Line to scrap the 15 per cent fuel surcharge currently being applied to Spirit of Tasmania bookings to benefit local travellers and businesses.

Now the price of fuel has settled, other ferry operators across the nation have removed their own surcharges, with Port Phillip Ferries returning to their original pricing over a week ago.

Given the eye-watering debt the Liberals have racked up through the extraordinary waste of the Ferries Fiasco, Tasmanians are rightly concerned that TT-Line could be keeping the fuel surcharge going to prop the company up.

After 13 years of Liberal waste Premier Rockliff has already put Eric Abetz in charge of cutting jobs and services to pay for it.

By keeping the fuel surcharge going, the Liberals are taxing Tasmanian travellers and Tasmanian tourism operators as well.

To his credit, new Tourism Minister Roger Jaensch has previously been a strong advocate for reduced fares on the Spirits to drive visitors to the North-West.

Now he’s off the backbench, he needs to walk the walk and scrap the Spirits fuel surcharge which will be good for businesses, and good for local travellers too.