It’s a media, Deep Green beat-up

David Llewellyn Hansard, Government Business Enterprise hearings

In my career as minister I have rarely been inclined to strong language, however the recent pattern of inaccurate and malicious commentary about Hydro Tasmania represents a very low point in the history of Tasmanian political and media debate. I think it warrants the strongest possible response. From my perspective it is time for a line in the sand. Today’s proceedings will set the record straight and shine light on the political agenda of those who have vilified Hydro in recent years.

CHAIR (Mr Best) — I would like to welcome you all this morning. I understand the minister would like to give an outline.

Mr LLEWELLYN — In my career as minister I have rarely been inclined to strong language, however the recent pattern of inaccurate and malicious commentary about Hydro Tasmania represents a very low point in the history of Tasmanian political and media debate. I think it warrants the strongest possible response. From my perspective it is time for a line in the sand. Today’s proceedings will set the record straight and shine light on the political agenda of those who have vilified Hydro in recent years.

The process of parliamentary scrutiny should be about the truth, the truth that Hydro is an organisation of which all its owners and the people of Tasmania should be justly proud. The truth is that Hydro has been fundamental to the transformation of the Tasmanian economy since the late 1990s. The truth is that Hydro’s financial strength and technical expertise were essential in the successful completion of Basslink and the natural gas project, a critical infrastructure, might I say, that has saved Tasmania from an economic catastrophe that would otherwise have been an inevitable result of the current drought. The truth is that, since its inception, Hydro has earned considerable and consistent profits and returned hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends that help to fund schools, hospitals, roads and police upon which ordinary Tasmanians rely. The truth is that Hydro Tasmania has spawned Roaring Forties, which now has approximately $500 million in projects which are fully commissioned and under construction throughout Asia and has incredible commercial opportunities ahead. This success has been achieved in spite of the shameful indifference of the Howard Government both nationally and in Tasmania to the prospects of wind energy in Australia. The truth is that Hydro Tasmania Consulting’s expertise, a direct legacy of the dam-building era, is in demand around the world and has won contracts in more than 20 countries. All of this has been achieved while delivering for Tasmanians some of the cheapest electricity prices in the world and maintaining a level of debt almost identical to that allocated to Hydro Tasmania upon its inception nearly a decade ago. The truth is that every relevant detail pertaining to the Hydro’s financial performance has been publicly available in annual reports through the Auditor-General’s annual review and this scrutiny process.

The pattern of misinformation that we have seen recently is merely the latest sorry chapter in a decade-old agenda of animosity towards the Hydro among the deeper Greens and their sympathisers in the media and elsewhere. I am astonished that this spite has survived so strongly when the global focus on climate change and renewable energy means that the Hydro Tasmania brand has never been stronger outside its island home. Attacks upon the Hydro are being used as a convenient stalking horse to attack the Government. Despite being profoundly unethical and mostly ill-informed, these attacks damage Hydro’s brand and its reputation and by doing so damage the long-term interests of ordinary Tasmanians.

Today we must harness the dignity of Parliament to insist upon the truth. The truth is that the generation of Tasmanians who built the Hydro deserve better than to have their legacy trampled by a grubby tactic adopted by people who would never bear the responsibility of governing our State and have no policy ideas of their own. The truth is that the world-class employees of Hydro Tasmania deserve better than to have their efforts vilified and their significant achievements ignored for short-term political advantage. The truth is that Hydro’s ruthless commercial competitors will take every possible advantage of commercially sensitive information, recklessly disclosed through half-baked political or media attack, even if that information is wrong. I know that the Hydro management team will only be too pleased to answer any questions arising from those error-riddled hedging stories represented last weekend. I also hope that someone might ask me a question regarding the article that appeared in the Mercury on 22 November regarding the Auditor-General’s recent reports in government businesses because he did not say the things that he is reported to have said in the media.

As I noted in my opening remarks I do not adopt this strident tone lightly, but as minister I think it is my duty to defend the great institution from being treated as a sacrificial pawn in a political agenda. I know Dr Crean would like to make a few introductory remarks of his own before answering as many of the committee’s questions as we can in the time provided.

Read more here: http://www.hansard.parliament.tas.gov.au/isysquery/irl28b7/1/doc

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