Finally, our deal is ready

Almost 2½ years after the heads of agreement for the Hobart City Deal was signed amid much fanfare comes the promise that the formal final announcement of the funding package will come this Sunday. This is very welcome news.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, February 19, 2019. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

FINALLY. Almost 2½ years after the heads of agreement for the Hobart City Deal was signed amid much fanfare comes the promise that the formal final announcement of the funding package will come this Sunday. This is very welcome news.

While we will withhold our full judgment until all the detail is released, the fact that Hobart will receive millions of dollars in federal attention in an election year is a solid achievement that the Hodgman Government deserves credit for negotiating.

That’s because the fact is that Labor’s Julie Collins has the electorate of Franklin pretty well locked up, and the Denison/Clark-based Andrew Wilkie is probably the most popular of any Independent MP knocking around the House of Representatives at the moment. The only chance the Liberals have of threatening Labor’s stranglehold on Tasmania at the election in May comes through the perennially marginal electorates of Bass and Braddon in the North and North-West, and perhaps Lyons. That all means there is little reason politically for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to deliver more than the basics for the South.

And yet, now we now know that on Sunday Mr Morrison will be in town to sign the City Deal. As we report today, included in that deal will be $30 million in new cash for 100 affordable housing dwellings across Greater Hobart. This is an important initiative, so long as the cash gets quickly to the service providers rather than being caught up in unnecessary bureaucracy. As we have talked about so often in this column, the housing crisis is hitting hardest those who are most vulnerable — families on low-incomes, people escaping domestic and family violence, older people, and people living with a disability. For these people, the crisis is more than an inconvenience. They need urgent support, so let’s hope this cash is converted into housing soon.

As for the other components of the deal, we understand there will be cash to combat traffic congestion and for the long-awaited new Bridgewater Bridge. There is also hope there will be funding to support Hobart’s pitch to secure our position as one of the premier gateways to the Antarctic, and perhaps the University of Tasmania’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Centre will also get some attention. Again, these are all good things.

There has been some criticism thrown at the City Deal concept — accusing it of being little more than a political trick to bundle up funding that would otherwise have come along anyway. Perhaps there is something to that argument. But this process also makes it more meaningful, in that the cash will now be connected to a signature from the Prime Minister. Further, federal Labor has committed to honouring any City Deals that are signed before election day. This further secures whatever funding is included.

So while there will no doubt be some devil in the detail unveiled on Sunday, all Hobartians should wake up happy today that finally our City Deal will be inked. That means that as the promises inevitably flow to the northern electorates in coming months, we can at least be content that this time around the South has not been totally forgotten.