This morning in Budget Estimates the Member for Franklin, Mr McKim, made a number of allegations surrounding the upgrade of the South Arm Highway.
Mr McKim’s allegation that an ex-gratia payment of $900,000 was made to a company known as “Tranmere Point” is incorrect. No such payment was made and Mr McKim should apologise to the principals concerned.
The South Arm Highway upgrade was first announced in 2010. Since that time, it has been delayed by design issues, particularly surrounding the potential impact upon a number of commercial properties in the vicinity of Buckingham Drive.
When we came to office, Stage 2 of the project was stalled. We undertook a comprehensive review to determine the quickest and most cost effective way to get the project back on track using the safest design option on one of Tasmania’s busiest suburban arterial roads.
Following this review, the Government agreed to negotiated acquisition of properties from property owners in order to facilitate the construction of the safest and most cost effective road solution.
This decisive action meant some $2.5 million savings in design and construction costs. A total of $1.4 million was paid which included acquisition of property and an ex-gratia payment in recognition of injurious effects and calculated on the advice of the Valuer-General.
The net saving to the taxpayer of these agreements was $1.1 million and we were able to get the project back underway.
In addition, as a result of design changes facilitated by these agreements, impact on a stand of Eucalyptus ovata, a species protected under Federal environmental law as a foraging habitat for the critically endangered orange bellied parrot, located in the road reserve between the road and the southern boundary of the road reserve, was avoided.
The road upgrade is now nearly complete. I am somewhat surprised that Mr McKim, who is an elected member for Franklin, appears not to support this upgrade, which will provide a much safer and more efficient road for the 17,000 of his constituents using it daily in this strongly-growing region.
I would also have thought he would have been supportive of the outcome given the fact that the impact on the E. Ovata was avoided.
The agreement enabling this positive outcome was subject to the usual cabinet processes and therefore I will not be commenting further on the process.
Rene Hidding, Minister for Infrastructure
