Rare orchid blamed for stopping $28m road upgrade near Hobart Airport

A rare Tasmanian native orchid and a federal minister are being blamed for stalling a key road project near the Hobart airport.

Caladenia saggicola - Sagg Spider Orchid. Picture: Peter Fehre

A handful of endangered orchids and a recalcitrant federal minister are being blamed for sending $28m in upgrades to a major traffic bottleneck back to the drawing board and adding to five years of delays for long-suffering Hobart motorists.

State Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson’s assertion that the Midway Point causeway expansion project was being stalled by federal government red tape was last night rubbished by federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

“The laws that require this project to be assessed were legislated by John Howard. In fact, it was Liberal Sussan Ley as environment minister who decided this project needed assessment under national environment law in 2021,” she said.

The state government promised in 2020 to build two more lanes between Hobart Airport and the Midway Point causeway as part of a $350m regional roads plan.

AThe Milford Forest area, on the left, where the rare orchids grow.

The roughly 2.6km stretch of road was supposed to be finished by mid 2021. It is intended to knock three minutes off the commute to and from Sorell.

The timetable was later revised to start in May 2022 with completion by the end of 2023.

Mr Ferguson told state parliament on Tuesday that he was now “hopeful” that construction could begin in 2025.

Land close to the proposed roadworks is home to species of two critically endangered orchids, the Milford leek-orchid (Prasophyllum milfordense) and Sagg Spider-orchid (Caladenia saggicola). The federal environment department says offsets for these species are required within the project.

Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson. Picture: Chris Kidd

Mr Ferguson said the road plan was being “badly mucked around” by the federal government’s line interpretation of environmental laws.

“It’s so bad that we’ve even decided to do the duplication on the golf club side of the highway where there are no orchids and yet the federal environment department’s policies have been no less challenging for the state roads people to deal with,” he said.

“The Tasmanian government shares the frustrations of daily users of the Tasman Highway between Sorell and Hobart, with major projects delayed for many years due to the Albanese Government’s new interpretation of environment legislation.

“These projects have been delayed for far too long due to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s hard-line interpretation of her legislation — and it’s being felt in every part of Australia.”

Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek . Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

There are only 350 Milford Leek orchids known to science and they exist only on the site in question. The Sagg Spider orchid has only been found in two places, with just three of the 450 known plants found elsewhere.

Independent member for Franklin David O’Byrne said the governnment’s claims were bluster.

“This stretch of road on the Tasman Highway is a massive chokepoint and has been a frustration to commuters for years.

Prasophyllum milfordense - Milford Leek Orchid. Picture: Peter Fehre

“The rest of this government’s self-described South-East Traffic Solution is completely undermined until this small stretch of road is fixed,” said Mr O’Byrne.

“After spending more than five years on this project, this government still have no finalised plan, no finalised development application, and they haven’t even gone through all the required environmental approvals with the federal government.

“Today, in response to my question, he admitted that his government have basically had to restart the entire planning and approvals process.

“For Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson to blame the federal government EPBC Act is just dishonest.

“It is the state government’s complete bungling of this project and the approvals processes that has meant this project has gone nowhere in half a decade.”

Mr Ferguson maintained Ms Plibersek’s office was “the number one bottleneck for infrastructure projects around the country”.

“As the new government has taken what they euphemistically call ‘nature-positive approaches’ on the current legislation and their threatened new legislation around environmental approvals in the future, we are seeing projects all around the country being stuck in minister Plibersek’s department right now. This is one of them.”