Tourists planning to pop their caravans on a big new ship to Tasmania and holiday around the Apple Isle could be stuck on the mainland after the state’s “diabolical failure” to build a berth to handle new vessels.

Tasmania’s Labor opposition, farmers and business councils have lashed out at the government after it this week admitted that two new Spirit of Tasmania ships, which are being built in Finland at a cost of more than $900 million, would not be able to voyage across the Bass Strait because they have nowhere to berth.