The Spit terminal: Council ready to launch its ship after Spit master plan finalised

Mayor Tom Tate has revealed council is fast-tracking the business case for its cruise ship terminal following the release of the state’s draft Spit master plan.

MAYOR Tom Tate will push the release of his business case for his offshore cruise ship terminal as soon as the State Government finalises its masterplan for The Spit.

Labor is in the final stage of the master plan process, conducting public consultation on the draft before the approved plan is released next month.

Between May and August the Government will identify and draft the legislation needed to put the master plan in place.

But council will have its business case for the offshore CST planned for Philip Park to be ready by July.

It will also be ready to proceed quickly with a proposed recycled water system.

The site for the offshore cruise ship terminal at Philip Park. Pic by David Clark.

Cr Tate, in an updated statement on the council website, told ratepayers “council hopes to have the business case (for the cruise ship terminal) finalised before the end of this financial year”.

Council sources confirmed the business case is almost ready to go.

The master plan includes four different options for Philip Park, including one which shows a larger 4000-passenger terminal over the parkland than is being planned by council.

Council officers in a report said the option was developed by the State bureaucrats and consultants and “has not been assessed or verified by the City”.

Council in its “preliminary business case” did not present similar numbers and terminal size.

A council source told The Bulletin: “The business case is pretty well done now. Now that the State Government allowed us to work at it (during the master planning) we’re confident we can wrap it up by the end of the financial year.”

Cr Tate, while welcoming the master plan, has publicly called on the Palaszczuk Government to put some money up to develop it.

“The talking, consultation and planning is almost over – what is now needed is an immediate funding commitment from the State to get the ball rolling,” he said.

“Their budget is due to be handed down in the next eight weeks. That’s the time to identify real funding.”

How the Spit master plan envisages the cruise ship terminal at Philip Park might look.

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A briefing document to the government identifies $205 million of commercial development across several State-owned sites on The Spit but Labor is yet to talk up its funding plans.

The council is confident that the Government, once it reviews the business case, will green light the Philip Park proposal for the cruise ship terminal process to proceed.

“They may not particularly like it but they don’t know how to say no. They will say it needs to go to an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement),” a council source said.

The Spit master plan - the options report, showing the area around Sea World.

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Cr Tate has promised ratepayers that the CST will not proceed if it fails to tick all the environmental boxes, and the project will be “built and operated by a private consortium” on the State-owned land currently managed by council.

The Mayor in February 2017 also promised that water would be treated to A class and redirected to the Federation Walk precinct.

“The Mayor in the 2020 budget (in June) will allocated money to upgrade C class water to A grade. Everyone can use that water in abundance,” a council source said.