by Laura Beavis, ABC
No guarantee Tasmanian households won’t be hardest hit by Marinus Link bill
It was the hot topic of letters between former prime minister Scott Morrison and the Tasmanian government — and it appears there’s still no guarantee Australia’s poorest state won’t pay half the cost of a massive new power project and reap a fraction of the benefits.
The undersea electricity interconnectors and new transmission infrastructure between Tasmania and Victoria, dubbed Marinus Link, are estimated to cost $3.5 billion to build.
The Commonwealth and Tasmanian Governments have already committed over $200 million to pay for feasibility studies and a business case, and a Final Investment Decision is set for 2024.
But both governments privately acknowledged most of the benefits will go to mainland electricity customers and Tasmanian energy generators, including Hydro Tasmania and wind farm owners, and not to Tasmanian consumers.
Read the full story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-22/marinus-link-power-project-cost-argument-tasmania-v-victoria/101169642.
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 22 June 2022
Environmentalists outraged by PM Albanese backing of the Marinus project in Tasmania today
“Marinus will wreck the only known natural population of disease-free Tasmanian devils on Earth,” said former Greens leader Bob Brown in Hobart today.
“It will put up power prices for all Tasmanians. Marinus will transform Robbins Island in north-west Tasmania from the most important stronghold for the critically endangered Tasmanian devil to another disease-ridden one.”
“Marinus also threatens large swathes of Tasmanian forests and an array of shore birds which migrate from Siberia each year to feed adjacent to Robbins Island, which will be converted into a giant windfarm by Marinus,” Bob Brown said.
“The Albanese Government should stop this project.”
Ben Marshall
June 23, 2022 at 11:52
It’s critical that people begin to see the bigger picture of what Minister Barnett and our State government are actually doing, rather than what they’re saying.
Any talk of ‘benefits’ and ‘co-funding’ of Marinus Link are irrelevant – we’ll pay via Federal and State government subsidies and increasing power prices. The real focus should be on why the Minister is giving TasNetworks control of planning our energy sector and the proposed Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) when it’s not only a clear commercial conflict of interest (a for-profit ‘poles and wires’ company creating a plan that focuses on building vastly more ‘poles and wires’) but against the interests of all Tasmanians.
For context, the Marinus Project includes the Marinus Link, a second interconnector designed to ship privately-owned renewables energy to the Mainland market. We Tasmanians will derive close to zero benefit from this, or any expansion of the renewables industry, when it merely serves offshore commercial interests. The other part of the Project is TasNetworks’ North West Transmission ‘Upgrade’. This is an ‘upgrade’ in name only, and while it’s correct that there are sections of our current grid that need upgrading, this is being used as cover for the construction of a truly enormous new and vastly bigger grid – all to profit TasNetworks and attract and serve foreign renewables’ investments in new wind farms.
None of the claims of ‘jobs and growth’ and ‘cheaper power’ stemming from this activity stack up under scrutiny. They’re pure political spin and corporate PR, aka lies.
Other lies are the unspoken ones .. the true costs to Tasmania of this infrastructure, costs that TasNetworks and our State government refuse to acknowledge – environmental destruction, economic vandalism (Marinus is essentially a plan to export jobs) increased land-drying from easements and tower-access roading, job losses in the tourism sector from loss of iconic wilderness areas, decreased property values, increased fire risk, increased water pollution in pristine rivers and catchment .. the list is long.
We need our journalists to focus less on simply reporting the spin and more on questioning it. The commercial news networks refuse to do so, and the ABC avoids anything that looks critical of State government for fear of being accused of ‘bias’.
TasNetworks is about to create a white elephant for foreign investors (who may not bother investing in it) instead of working with all sectors to transition Tasmania to a low-emissions / all-electric economy. We don’t have time for delusional crusades to industrialise our north-west by the Minister, or allowing the Market to dictate energy policy and plans. Lip service to ‘engage with community’ and ‘action on climate’ are being used to cover the Big Lie – that our our State government isn’t working for us, but rather for their own and corporate interests. Community is being excluded from every room where decisions are being made that will directly affect us.
We’ve never needed a wide-awake and active Opposition more, but if Labor continues focusing on irrelevant side issues like ‘who will pay for Marinus’ we’ll lose any chance of stopping Marinus and the continuing sell-off of our North-West to foreign commercial interests.