Please note this transcript is not formally proofed.
Journalist:
Are you happy with delays to the Tarkine Road, that they may potentially mean nothing gets done, I guess you’re hoping before you win Government and the start of the project altogether?
Will Hodgman:
Look our views are very clear. We rather this ill conceived project not go ahead at all. The Government has not done the homework, just ploughed ahead with the decision that’s been divisive. We are aware of significant environmental concerns here. The last thing we need to be doing is rushing anything. Now what this says to us is that there are serious questions that remain unanswered. The Government has a fundamental responsibility and a duty to ensure that all appropriate information is provided, that it is dealt with by the Federal Minister’s office in a considered fashion and that politics doesn’t intervene here. The last thing Tasmania needs is a Government running hell bent into an election campaign, trying to drive a project through that is ill conceived, and potentially has very serious ramifications. That’s just what we don’t need.
Journalist:
Graeme Sturges says everything is just going to plan and that this is to be expected, this extra request for extra information. Is that a bit of spin perhaps, trying to dress up what was obviously a poor (inaudible) in the first place?
Will Hodgman:
Well the Government’s track record on projects in this State is not good. We have seen in many instances projects run off the rails. We won’t be unhappy if this one does, because it is ill conceived. There are serious issues that need to be properly investigated. We are now heading towards an election; I would call on the Government to do what’s right, what’s necessary to ensure that the right decisions are made here and not ones that are simply driven by politically imperatives. This Government has invested so much in this Tarkine Road, for whatever reason. I am not going to stand by and support them or indeed ascribe any level of support while serious questions remain unanswered.
Journalist:
Should Ministers be spruiking this project, when it doesn’t even look like it will get off the ground before the election?
Will Hodgman:
We have seen gross and crass politics. Classic Labor Party politics prior to the election. They want to be seen as driving something forward, in our view it is a bad project, it should stop.
Journalist:
If they do send the bulldozers in a month before the election for example, would you stop work once if you had won Government?
Will Hodgman:
We are now getting perilously close to the election. Obviously there is still work that needs to be done and we would hope that the appropriate amount of time and resource is given to that, and it’s up to the Labor Government in Tasmania here to draw breath, they shouldn’t do anything rash, and they shouldn’t try to bulldoze this thing through. It’s not only poorly conceived, it’s a divisive project and it’s not capitalising on what’s so special about this region, and worse still has potentially damaging effects environmentally.
Journalist:
If work had commenced, what would you do? Would you stop work (inaudible) or would you feel that you are (inaudible)?
Will Hodgman:
That is largely hypothetical, but in our view this project should not proceed without proper checks, with proper analysis and I would think given the importance of this project in the shadows of an election campaign, the Government should do the right thing and just hold back. We won’t be too far off caretaker mode, so the Government should not be ploughing ahead with anything, let alone the divisive, ill conceived project such as this.
Journalist:
You’re not ruling out continuing work if it’s begun before the election?
Will Hodgman:
We’re opposed to this project. Our position is totally clear. We don’t want to see it happen. We have got an alternative which is about opening up greater opportunities for the North West. So we are totally opposed to this project. We don’t want to see it happen.
Journalist:
If it does commence prior to the election, it will happen at the western end of the Tarkine, which you actually support. So how could you criticise it knowing it sort of in sync with your policy. That first stage of the Government’s road?
Will Hodgman:
Again, we are talking about hypotheticals here. Want we want to see happen is that the appropriate Government agency undertake its work at a Federal level. There are still questions that remain unanswered. There is a lot of water to go under the bridge. It’s not the Liberal Party here that’s driving this ridiculous proposal forward, without doing the homework, without fully assessing its implications, it’s Labor.
Journalist:
What about these suggestions that somehow McCain’s workers could be employed in tourism or building this road. Is the Government on the money there with those comments?
Will Hodgman:
[inaudible] politics by Bryan Green. I think he lacks credibility and what he is doing here is trying to use the very difficult circumstances of workers from McCain for his own political ends. I don’t think it is good strategy, I don’t think it’s good planning, and I don’t think it’s a good thing to do, when Tasmanian workers are feeling very down about their longer term prospects.
Journalist:
Is it plausible to say that someone can go from packing frozen vegetables to serving cappuccinos at a cafe on the side of the road?
Will Hodgman:
Well Bryan Green is making that ludicrous suggestion, it’s not us. It’s not in our view the way to deal with the workers at McCain who are facing a very bleak future. I think this is more about Bryan Green trying to leverage some political advantage in the most traumatic circumstances.
Journalist:
Is the Government been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the vegetable processing industry?
Will Hodgman:
We’ve said that what needs to happen is a constructive approach to dealing with this problem. We would support the Premier’s moves to try and strike some sort of resolution and get an understanding from the Company as to how things can be turned around. It’s David Bartlett who said that he’s going to find a solution to these workers, so the weight lays firmly on his shoulders. We offered our support in a constructive bi-partisan way. He has refused that, but we do hope that he can get a positive result, because hundreds of Tasmanian families are dependent on it. But the claim by Michael Aird that this was all out of the blue, is extraordinary given that the Government itself obtained a report in 2006* that pointed to very serious concerns about vegetable processing in this State. In fact, it highlighted the very likelihood of vegetable processing and its future in Tasmania, not being viable into the long term. So the Government’s own report here said they should be keeping an eye on this industry sector. The Government’s own report said there were serious questions and for Michael Aird to say that he’s known nothing about this until now, shows how hands off this Government is. I mean it’s not good enough for Michael Aird and the Premier to have taken such a blasé attitude given this report. What information have they have, when were they informed, is it true that there was no conversation at all with McCains up until recently, when the problem became serious? These are questions that remain unanswered, and in our view this report highlighting a problem, shows the Government could have done a lot more than just sit back complacently and once again, be reacting to a tragedy.
Journalist:
Do you have concerns that other operators would follow McCain out of Tasmania?
Will Hodgman:
Well again, this report highlights that there were and are serious issues about the long term viability of these sorts of industries and processing operations in this State. So it’s not news. This has not come like a bolt from the blew like Michael Aird would have us believe. Once again, we have got a Government reacting into a crisis, once again, they are scrambling and trying to claim some political advantage out of the trauma that has been heaped on innocent Tasmanian working families. What we want to know from the Government, what work were they doing, why were they not identifying a potential problem that have been highlighted in a report and acting on it? It’s little wonder these sorts of things happen, it’s little wonder once again we see Government in damage control mod. Now it’s David Bartlett who is making a very strong claim that he is going to save these jobs, well it will be on his head if he doesn’t.
Journalist:
He said he was pessimistic today, does that show he is just really going through the motions for political expediency?
Will Hodgman:
Well it’s no good shooting your mouth off one day, promising you can’t deliver. David Bartlett is very good at that, but in this instance we are dealing with Tasmanian workers and their families, their livelihoods, it’s far too serious for him to be playing politics, but he has made the claim, so whether or not he is successful remains to be seen. We hope he is, it will be on his head if he’s not.
Journalist:
This is a long term problem, what would a Liberal Government do, too sure up the future of the manufacturing industry?
Will Hodgman:
Well the first thing we will be doing is getting to industry and talking with them. We have seen too often this Government reacting and too often being an unwilling participant. You only need to look at ACL and the hands off approach there that was undertaken by Michael Aird. It looks very similar to what’s happen here. Now if the Government commissions a report in 2006, by its own admission does not act on it, I think that’s negligent in the extreme, and a Hodgman Liberal Government when we get a report such as this will take it seriously and we will go and get to the root of the problem and see what Government can do to assist.
Journalist:
Just as well the Greens royalty for the regions policy, is that something the Liberal Party can support?
Will Hodgman:
Look we are keen to see the details of all Green’s policies. It’s in our view – we want to present our own policies that are designed to advantage Tasmanians and indeed the whole State. We are not attracted to this notion, and I think in this instance its more about Nick McKim trying to gain some political advantage in Braddon where the Greens need it, but in our view the case hasn’t been made. We will present our own policies that advantage the entire State, we’re all for regional development, but we will do things in a strategic and considered way.
Journalist:
The Liberals were forced to adopt that policy in WA to get the Nationals on board and the Coalition, perhaps a parallel here for you to get Greens support, you might have to accept this?
Will Hodgman:
Look, it’s an interesting comparison I suppose, and it was circumstances in WA that led to that. There are pretty big differences between WA and Tasmania, and there are certainly big differences between the Greens Party and the Nationals.
Will Hodgman MP Press conference, Parliament House Tuesday 24 November 2009
