Labor’s Energy spokesman David O’Byrne blasts Project Marinus’ 46 staff despite no funding, backing

The employment of nearly four dozen bureaucrats on a major national project which has no backer, no funding and no business case has been labelled “grossly excessive”.

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THE employment of nearly four dozen bureaucrats on Project Marinus — which has no backer, no funding and no business case — was grossly excessive, Labor’s Energy spokesman David O’Byrne said on Wednesday.

The project is a proposed 1500 megawatt electrical cable between Tasmania an Victoria intended to boost green power exports into the national electricity grids.

The $3.5 billion project is intended to underpin the state’s ambition to become the “battery of the nation” by supplying pumped hydro and wind energy to interstate customers.

A response to a question on notice from last year’s Government Business Enterprise hearings listed 46 staff, including 10 in finance, commercial and procurement, and 12 in stakeholder and environment services and the general manager’s office has five people working in it.

Mr O’Byrne said it was a lot of people to be working on a project that existed only on the drawing board.

Labor's David O'Byrne.

“They’re saying they’re not going to get to financial close and to finalisation of a proposal until 2024,’ he said.

“If you‘re committed to making it work how come they’re saying they won’t have that work finalised until 2024? It’s years away. Where is the urgency? Where’s the focus?”

Mr O’Byrne said the allocation seemed awry.

“There seems to be a lot of communications people, which is an interesting insight into how the government sees it.”

Project Marinus General Manager Bess Clark said the interconnector was a massive project for Tasmania and involved a lot of work.

“Marinus Link is a nationally significant infrastructure project that will play an important role in transforming the National Electricity Market, creating thousands of jobs and putting downward pressure on electricity prices,” she said.

“It’s one of the biggest projects in Tasmania’s history. We’re determined to get it right.”

“As at 9 December 2020, the Project had directly engaged 46 permanent and fixed-term, highly skilled and experienced workers who are focused on delivering the Design and Approvals project phase.

“As the project evolves, the structure and resourcing of the team will continue to be assessed, to make sure the resources remain fit for purpose to meet the project needs.”

A govenrment spokesman said the staffing levels were appropriate for the size of the project.

“Project Marinus is providing local employment opportunities for Tasmanians and is resourced to deliver the design and approvals requirements to take a multi-billion project through to Financial Investment Decision,” he said.

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