Dean Winter says Scottish government has no plans for refugees on Spirit IV
The saga over the leasing of Spirit of Tasmania IV, berthed in Scotland, drags on. Read the latest and why Labor is demanding answers.
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The Scottish government has no plans to lease the Spirit of Tasmania IV for Ukranian refugees, Labor says, with leader Dean Winter calling on Premier Jeremy Rockliff to “start telling the truth” about the ship.
The government remains tight lipped on the ship’s future with a spokeswoman saying on Saturday: “TT-Line are in active, ongoing commercial negotiations to secure a lease for the vessel. It is not appropriate to provide further commentary.”
The Scottish government has used two ships to provide temporary accommodation for hundreds of refugees at the same berth where the Spirit is docked in Leith.
Mr Winter said it was the second time in less than a year that the government was negotiating with a foreign country over the future of Spirit IV.
“Less than 12 months ago, the government was negotiating with the Finnish government to bail out a Finnish shipbuilder and it ended up costing Tasmanian taxpayers $80m of our money going into a Finnish shipbuilder to bail them out,” he said.
“Now they are refusing to deny negotiating with the Scottish government over the use of Spirit IV as a floating refugee camp.
“At the same time the Scottish Government appears to be denying it is happening at all.
“This is turning into a farce. What on earth is going on here?”
A Scottish government media spokesperson has been reported as saying it had no plans to lease Spirit IV or any other vessel for Ukranian refugees.
Mr Winter said the Spirit project had been “off course for a long period of time” and Mr Rockliff had said he was intervening.
“His intervention has led us to this point where no one can understand what’s actually happening,” he said.
“It’s time for Jeremy Rockliff and this minority Liberal government to start telling the truth, to get this project back on track, to bring the Spirit home where it belongs.”
The Red Cross, he said, had made the point that Spirit IV was not designed “for people to live in the long term”.
“They’re ferries. They are designed for a short crossing about across Bass Strait for people to spend one night on the ship.
“This doesn’t help anyone. The proposal is a very, very bad idea for our ships.
“We’ve got a ship that’s costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars, in fact over the course of the last few months, almost $2m to berth in Scotland.
“Everyone knows what needs to happen and that’s to bring our ship home to Tasmania, to be fitted out and ready for service.”
Labor says it will question the government on the Spirit lease negotiations when state parliament resumes on Tuesday.
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