Vision for Hobart city deal gets shot in the arm

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier Will Hodgman have signed an agreement today to accelerate a Hobart City Deal. WATCH THE VIDEO

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier Will Hodgman will sign an agreement today to accelerate a Hobart City Deal centred on a $400 million University of Tasmania STEM centre in the CBD.

The agreement comes just over a year after Mr Turnbull told the Mercury of his plan to negotiate a City Deal with Hobart which could facilitate a light rail system and modern public transport network.

A final City Deal is expected to include funds towards a $2 billion redevelopment of Macquarie Point and transport options.

EDITORIAL: A CHANCE TO SEAL THE DEAL

“There is no doubt that Hobart is undergoing significant growth and development and a City Deal will help guide and sustain that development well into the future and ensure that Hobart’s livability is not compromised,” Mr Turnbull will say.

Premier Will Hodgman, left, and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull doing a meet and greet on the Hobart docks after today's City Deal announcement at Macquarie Point. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“The City Deal will provide the focus needed to ensure that the Commonwealth, State and local governments are all working together to ensure the Greater Hobart area benefits from the city’s transition.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier Will Hodgman with a host of other MPs at Macquarie Wharf in Hobart this morning. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“There is a unique opportunity around the future of Macquarie Point, especially in relation to tourism and development as an Antarctic Precinct and this agreement will explore the best way to deliver that.”

A City Deal overseen by Cities Minister Paul Fletcher would include a Greater Hobart Transport Vision which could encompass transport solutions for the city, including busways, a light rail network from the city to Glenorchy and cross-Derwent ferries.

The agreement will result in options being explored for a new Science, Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) centre for Hobart.

Negotiations on developing the STEM centre would be modelled on the co-operative approach of the federal, state and local government and university and private sector in the $400 million relocation of the UTAS Launceston campus closer to the CBD.

A Hobart City Deal would be the fourth in Australia under the Government’s Smart Cities plan, which includes a $100 million deal with Townsville, $300 million with Launceston and another in Western Sydney.

Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Tasmania Professor Mike Calford, left, Dr Lila Landowski specialising in stroke research and Premier Will Hodgman at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

Many of the issues to be examined in the City Deal process have been canvassed in the Mercury’s Tasmania 2022 series of articles in the past fortnight. The STEM centre has been accepted by Infrastructure Australia as a project of priority.

“Hobart is one of Australia’s premiere science cities, with among the highest rates of scientists per capita in the country,” the PM says.

“Advanced manufacturing and engineering is one of Tasmania’s competitive advantages, with the state at the cutting edge in a number of niche areas, from defence industry manufacturing to the development of pioneering boat building.”

Premier Will Hodgman says improving research and education is a key way that the Commonwealth and State Government could help build Tasmania’s future.

University of Tasmania Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Mike Calford said the positive impact of developing research-intensive facilities in the city heart was well understood.

“The University of Tasmania, in partnership with government, has invested about $300 million in Hobart in the past decade, including the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science and the Medical Science Precinct,” Prof Calford said.

“This has attracted an additional 2000 domestic and international students, new research funding of $20 million each year and generated a total 540 new university and indirect jobs.

“Similarly, the new STEM precinct will deliver profound economic and research impact for Tasmania and, perhaps more importantly, it will be the anchor for a statewide innovation network which will deliver jobs and new industries in the decades ahead.

“The evidence of economic renewal which comes with increasing university teaching, research and accommodation is apparent already in Burnie, Launceston and Hobart.

“This project, along with the new $97 million Hedburg cultural and performing arts centre [next to the Theatre Royal], will drive that to new levels.”

Prof Calford said an innovative funding model for the STEM centre was being developed.

Artists impressions of the development for UTAS STEM precinct on Argyle and Melville streets, Hobart.

When Mr Turnbull visited Hobart in November 2016 he told the Mercury of his vision for improved amenity, livability and housing affordability for the state’s capital.

“We’re very open, in fact enthusiastic, about talking about it. We are taking a very different approach to previous governments, both Coalition and Labor,’’ Mr Turnbull said. “My view is we need to have ‘City Deals’ like we do with Launceston – and we could readily do one with Hobart.”

Mr Turnbull said a City Deal for Hobart would help co-ordinate all investment and deliver a fully integrated outcome for the city.

“We work out what we want to achieve and that is going to be about improved amenity, livability, housing affordability and improved access to jobs, education and recreation,” he said. “The investment in urban infrastructure that makes a city more liveable is not a luxury. Cities are economic assets. It attracts tourism, it attracts businesses to establish here.’’

The City Deal comes against a political background in which the Hodgman Government is seeking to retain a parliamentary majority after the March state election, while the Turnbull Government lost all three of its House of Representative seats in Tasmania in the July 2016 election.