The Liberals are working to undermine oversight of their Spirits fiasco, determined to continue to hide the truth.

The repeated failures of the Liberal minority government when it comes to this project have made it clear they can’t be trusted. The business community are appalled by the way the Government have mismanaged the project and have called for independent and honest oversight of the project.

TCCI CEO Michael Bailey said it will be difficult to ever trust Premier Rockliff’s government again because of their handling of the Spirits fiasco and the Government can’t be relied on to “mark its own homework”.

The Premier has said he’s committed to getting the project back on track, but Tasmanians are still in the dark about how things got to this point. So far, the only answers we have from the Liberals are the ones we have had to pry out of them over six months of questioning.

Even Premier Rockliff tried to escape scrutiny earlier this week, showing his finger is nowhere near the pulse when it comes to the public sentiment around this issue.

This saga is far from finished. There are still unanswered questions and decisions about the future of the project yet to be made.

The proposed oversight committee will provide the Parliament and the public with regular updates on progress with the ships and the berth facilities.  Led by Labor, the committee will provide the oversight that Michael Ferguson and Premier Rockliff did not. 

Given their track record when it comes to the Spirits, it would be reckless and irresponsible to trust the Liberals to bring home the ships without supervision, which is why we need this oversight committee.

Dean Winter MP
Labor Leader
Shadow Minister for Tourism & Hospitality