Questions linger over multimillion dollar grant for parks huts
The Greens say long-delayed proposal for luxury huts along Tasmania’s wilderness coast should be abandoned. LATEST HERE >>
Tasmania
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- Fed Govt tight-lipped on $3M for private project in Tasmania’s World Heritage Wilderness
- Wilderness war set to break out
THE long-delayed proposal for luxury huts along Tasmania’s wilderness coast should be abandoned, the Greens say.
The federal government has underwritten a proposal to build six walking huts along the South Coast Track and on the way to South East Cape.
First mooted in 2017, the $6m project has still not received the necessary state or federal approvals and the proponent company is in the process of being sold to tourism company Adventure Co.
The deadline for the expiry of a $3m federal grant has been extended until next year.
Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said big mainland tourism businesses should not be allowed to expand into Tasmania’s wilderness areas.
“They are ASX listed, which means they are required by law to seek a profit for their shareholders at all cost,” she said.
“This proposal could be catastrophic for one of the world’s last great unspoilt coastlines.
“If it goes ahead, the south coast will no longer be true wilderness.
“The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is priceless global treasure and should be protected in perpetuity. It is not there to be traded between businesses.
“UNESCO have already sounded the alarm about the Liberals’ EOI process. It’s past time to walk away from this divisive privatisation push.”
At a recent meeting, UNESCO urged a pause on tourism developments in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the progress of many projects had been pushed back by the pandemic.
“In terms of the South Coast Track hut project, and that’s a matter between the proponents and the federal government,” he said.
“The one thing I think that we all have to recognise is that for the last 18 months, and especially the last year, we’ve been wrestling with a pandemic and for many businesses that has had an impact.
“I’m sure that’s played some part in this as well.”
Conservationist Bob Brown called for the grant to be returned and the project abandoned.
“These are wilderness-destroying intrusions into one of the last truly wild tracks on the planet, he said.
“The experience that people can get by helicoptering in and being portered along that track they can get in different places elsewhere in Tasmania.
“I’m very concerned that the a wild track like that will go the way of the Overland Track where the first four huts were put in by private enterprise, now they’re doubling them.
“The one thing that is unarguable is that the wilderness value of this, the wildest track left in Australia, will be hugely degraded by the cursion of two storey villas along the track.”
No progress on $3m Taxpayer-funded wilderness huts
A multimillion dollar taxpayer-funded grant to build private huts in the state’s southern wilderness has been quietly extended despite little progress in more than three years and the project still not having regulatory approvals.
In February 2018, the federal government announced it would pay up $3.2m towards the estimated $5.9m cost of building six luxury huts along the South Coast Track in the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness Area.
The project was intended to create up to 85 jobs and was one of 49 Tasmanian job creating projects funded under the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages.
Another 103 project proposals missed out.
The grant was supposed to be paid out by November 2020. But the federal government has extended the expiry to March next year.
But the project still does not have a lease, licence or state or federal environmental approvals and it is unclear if the grant has been transferred to a new proponent.
The Greens asked a series of questions about where the money has gone in budget estimates hearings earlier this year.
In response, the government revealed that $246,107 has been paid out to date, three of eight project milestones has been reached and completion was expected by April 2022.
The sale of the proponent company Maria Island Walks to tourism operator Experience Co was announced in April, with completion expected in July.
A company spokeswoman said the sale had not yet been completed, the company was committed to continuing with the project and no further comment would be made.
“I can confirm that Experience Co intends to continue with the EOI’s as part of the acquisition of The Maria Island Walk,” she said.
Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said it was unclear what value the large government grant was delivering.
“I’m going to certainly put in an order for the production of documents for the milestones that the project has to reach,” he said.
“I asked whether they are publicly available and they didn’t answer my question.”
He said there were questions about whether the grant remained live and whether it had been transferred during the sale of the business.
“We need answers to those questions. This is a significant matter of public interest and the matter of the social licence to stake here.
“I think it lacks a social licence and this is kind of uncertainty further undermines the community’s trust and support in not just the grant process, but also in the business itself.”
The grant was provided under the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages program — which came under fire for “administrative shortcomings” by the Australian National Audit Office.
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