CRESCENT BAY EXPOSES LIBERALS ON HYPOCRITCAL FINANCIAL POSITION
Wants State to Stand on Own Two Feet – But Apparently OK for Private Sector to be Subsidised…
Tim Morris MP
Greens Treasury spokesperson
Sunday, 9 September 2012
The Tasmanian Greens today said that the announcement that the Crescent Bay development would not proceed made it clear the proponent’s decision was due to financial considerations, and have accused the Liberals of seeking to misrepresent the situation.
Greens Treasury spokesperson Tim Morris MP said that the Liberals’ call for state government subsidies for this private development is hypocritical given Opposition Leader Will Hodgman’s demands that Tasmania ‘stand on its own two feet’ when it comes to accessing commonwealth funding.
“On one hand Will Hodgman refuses to tackle his Federal Leader’s campaign against Tasmania getting a fair share of GST revenue on the grounds that the state must ‘stand on its own two feet’, while on the other it is apparently an outrage that a private developer has not been given a government hand-out to get their project up and running,” Mr Morris said.
“The proposal for Crescent Bay, is a private development on private land, it had been through the planning processes and has had its permits for approximately five years, so clearly it has not been prevented by any community opposition. Instead the proponents have changed their mind due to financial considerations.”
“All private developers must be prepared to have their proposals assessed on merit, and it is up to them to have a developed business case by which it will make or break.”
“It is not the role of government to use hard-earned tax-payer funds to compensate a private developer for lack of a financial backer or a flawed business case. That sets up the dangerous situation of the government of the day pandering to ‘mates’ and interfering with the principle of an equal playing field for all.”
“Will Hodgman’s hypocrisy stand exposed. Tasmania must stand on its own two feet apparently, but if he thinks he can score a political point based on misinformation then he is happy to change his tune and demand that private developers get subsidised by the tax-payer.
“The Greens have been upfront that we had concerns about the Crescent Bay proposal’s impacts on a fragile environment at the time it was assessed, but that obviously did not prevent development permits being granted. It is cheap political point scoring to now try and suggest otherwise, but we are confident Tasmanians will see through Mr Hodgman’s shameless fear-mongering,” Mr Morris said.
Tim Morris MP Greens Treasury spokesperson Sunday, 9 September 2012
