Without any of the usual day-glo fanfare, Marinus Link Pty Ltd was discreetly restructured yesterday (Tuesday 26 March), with control now ceded to the Commonwealth Government.
Current CEO Caroline Wykamp released this wimpy statement:
MARINUS TRANSITIONS TO TRI-GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
The Australian, Tasmanian and Victorian governments now jointly own Marinus Link.
Marinus Link Pty Ltd (MLPL) has transitioned to three-part equity ownership between the Australian Government (49%), the Victorian Government (33.3%) and the Tasmanian Government (17.7%).
“The new ownership arrangement is a fulfilment of government commitments to progress this nationally significant project,” said Marinus Link CEO Caroline Wykamp.
“It is further confirmation that our shareholder governments are serious about building Marinus Link for the benefit of all Australians.”
As part of the ownership changes, MLPL has separated from Tasmania’s transmission and distribution network service provider, TasNetworks, to become a stand-alone entity. Until today, MLPL was a subsidiary of TasNetworks, owned by the State of Tasmania.
“It was always planned and appropriate that Marinus Link would separate from TasNetworks, when ready,” said Ms Wykamp.
“The new ownership arrangement won’t change our important relationship with Tasmania and Tasmanians. It means we can increase our focus on Victoria and the needs of our stakeholders, landholders and communities in Gippsland.”
Marinus Link’s key activities, schedules and scope will not change as a result of the new ownership, including environmental approvals, revenue setting, tender processes and a final investment decision.
A new Board of Directors has been appointed to MLPL with nominees from each of the three governments.
There’s not a word in here about what financial agreements have been made – what amounts of cash or in-kind contributions constitute equity; what capital liabilities are expected to be accrued; what infrastructure projects in Tasmania must be undertaken to satisfy the Federal bailout.
We’re not even told how many ‘nominees from each of the three governments’ will constitute the new board. With a 17.7% stake and a sell option, perhaps Tasmania will occupy a nominal seat at the table.
I imagine any penetrating questions on these matters will evoke the ‘commercial in confidence’ blanket, even though it’s taxpayers’ money funding this second undersea white elephant. Perhaps we might learn some more when the stand-alone entity produces its own glossy annual report, unless the cable venture is swallowed by the leviathan Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.
Not that it needs stating, but TasNetworks (Marinus Link Pty Ltd’s previous owner) has been less than transparent with its shareholders, i.e. the people of Tasmania.
That the deal was inked after public threats by caretaker Premier Rockliff to the caretaker Labor Opposition last week does nothing to dispel suspicions that a hastily-called election was a perfect smokescreen for the job.
Rockliff maintained that “the Government needs to advise the Federal Labor Government and the Victorian Labor Government of our intention to sign the agreement by tomorrow (March 15) or else risk losing the project and cost Tasmania an additional $37 million”.
The subsequent briefing was, I imagine, the first time either Rebecca White or Dean Winter were fully privy to the arrangements.
Should it be reconvened in the next Parliament, the now-suspended Joint Select Committee on Energy Matters in Tasmania will have nothing but an academic discussion under its Terms of Reference:
(d) Marinus Link Pty Ltd and associated energy power developments (Battery of the Nation and North West Transmission Development) including:
(i) likely beneficiaries;
(ii) funding arrangements, including the potential for private sector contribution;
(iii) impact on Tasmanians’ energy bills and concessional pricing arrangements; and
(iv) alternative options and associated costs and/or benefits to Tasmania including costs and cost of a ‘do nothing approach’.
Should Caroline Wykamp have done enough glad-handing to keep her job as CEO, no amount of her bleating about the “final investment decision” being made in nine months’ time will quell the feeling that she’s overseen the sell-out of Tasmania’s independence on future energy decisions.
In her prophetic words: “It means we can increase our focus on Victoria and the needs of our stakeholders, landholders and communities in Gippsland.”
Bradley Saunders
March 27, 2024 at 15:51
Thankyou Tasmanian Times and Mr Pullen because, as far as I can see, there wasn’t a squeak about this matter in the other major media players in this state.
Ben Marshall
March 28, 2024 at 11:28
I’d only add that no one, except affected communities and landholders, is talking about the costs of Tasnetworks’ vast new transmission grid (the first stages of an even bigger grid) which will be paid for by us in our power bills, and which will export all new privately owned renewable energy to the National Energy Market via the four proposed Marinus Links.
Both major parties support the ongoing exploitation of the Tasmanian people to subsidise private, mostly foreign, wealth in order to ‘lower power prices in Victoria’ and ‘create investment opportunities’. Both major parties work slavishly for their donors and the corporate investor sector, and Tasnetworks, in a major conflict of interest, is designing all this in order to benefit itself and its shareholders, the Minister for Energy and the State Treasurer.
We desperately need our minor parties and independents to call a halt to Project Marinus (the Link and the North West Transmission Development), to listen to communities and independent energy sector economists, and to push our governments into begin working for us, and not their corporate ‘mates’.
James
March 28, 2024 at 12:42
In reading the electricity rules, I find that a regulated interconnector, Marinus link, will require annual revenue for its shareholders.
This will be significant and it would be recovered via Tasnetworks, thus increasing Tasmananian business and residential electric bills. Fixed charges would increase considerably, all just to export our energy. Remember too, that Victorians don’t really want another interconnector.
So what happens to Basslink? The new owners also want to make their interconnector regulated.
Julie
March 28, 2024 at 17:15
That’s a very good point Brad, as this matter should have been a banner headline in the papers. It’s almost as though the government didn’t want to draw attention to what’s going on …
It’s interesting to see the scruples that Emperor Rockliff has about incurring a $37M debt for Tasmanians, yet he was supremely unruffled about putting us on the hook for more than 10 times that amount for his misbegotten stadium. Tasmanians have been royally screwed, and I have no doubt that this process will continue for decades to come as we pay, and pay, and pay for a project that will not benefit a single one of us.
I hope that those at Marinus Link Pty Ltd were able to stifle their laughter – at least until the TasNetworks’ staff were out of earshot.