Bruny ferry call bungled

It’s all a real shame the process for naming the new Bruny ferry operator has been bungled by the State Government, because it could have been a fresh start for the island.

Deputy Premier Jeremy Rockliff. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

CHANGE is difficult. Managing change is even tougher. It’s far from impossible to win over even the most change-averse people, but it does require hard work.

To be most effective, it requires an understanding that it’s a scary time for those who will be impacted. And it therefore also relies on a genuine willingness on the part of the person or group driving the change to understand those concerns, and to engage with and keep informed — along the entire journey — those who are going to be impacted. In this way, you limit the opportunity to be accused of not having listened.

It’s the type of approach Infrastructure Minister Jeremy Rockliff is employing in relation to the government’s plan to construct a fifth lane on the Southern Outlet as a “tidal flow” busway. Mr Rockliff has put the proposal out in the public domain, is seeking public submissions, and plans to keep the community informed as the process plays out. And all that is for the addition of another lane on what is already a congested four-lane highway!

Meanwhile, the residents of Bruny Island are not happy with how the same Minister has managed the process to determine which operator will run their ferry service, with the current contract set to expire.

As the Mercury has been reporting, they feel the decision has been made without proper consultation. They fear the impact on their freedom of movement on and off the island through introduction of a booking system (even though the new operator, SeaLink, has promised seven standby places on every service). And the locals are worried that with no commitment yet to the flexibility of a shuttle service during peak times (one trip every 22 minutes, instead of a schedule 30 minutes) that capacity drops from 282 cars per hour to just 216 in peak times. They all sound like fairly sensible concerns being raised by a community that, it must be said, does have a history of being vocal in its opinions.

But that’s the point. They also all sound like concerns that surely would have been raised during even the most limited of community consultation processes with the 800 island residents. The Minister should have anticipated this, and prepared for it.

Faced with the backlash after last week’s announcement of its successful tender, SeaLink is now promising to “facilitate community workshops”. That’s a good thing. Let’s hope that through those workshops SeaLink can listen and respond appropriately, to do what should have been done much earlier and engage with the locals to understand their concerns — and act.

But, politically, the horse has bolted. What should have been a spotfire that was easily dealt with — or at least properly prepared for — has become a pretty fair-size firestorm for the Minister and this government. Unfortunately, too, it also all smacks of — yet again — a certain opaqueness when it comes to decision-making by the Hodgman Government. It gives fresh oxygen to those critics who accuse the government of being too focused on growing the tourism industry and not focused enough on ensuring the right balance.

It’s all a real shame, because this could have been an exciting fresh start for Bruny. But by bungling the process, it’s all blown up in the government’s face.