Transport Minister Eric Abetz was warned of ‘risks’ before pulling funding for Collins St bike lane project

Tasmania’s Transport Minister, Eric Abetz, decided to withdraw state government funding for the Hobart City Council’s Collins St bike lane project, despite warnings from his department, documents have revealed.

Concept design of Collins St bike lane trial. Picture: Hobart City Council

Transport Minister Eric Abetz was warned of potential financial and “reputational” risks to the government when he made the decision to withdraw grant funding for the Hobart City Council’s Collins St bike lane trial, documents released under Right to Information laws have revealed.

In June last year, the government committed $170,000 for the two-year trial under the Better Active Transport in Greater Hobart grant program but Mr Abetz announced on October 11 that the funding had been pulled.

The council is pushing ahead with the trial by reallocating funds from its active transport budget.

Minister Eric Abetz. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Installation of the bike lanes is set to begin between Molle and Harrington streets this month.

About 30 parking spaces will be removed from Collins St, with 25 spaces to be retained, prioritising people with disability.

RTI documents released to Greens transport spokeswoman Helen Burnet have unearthed an October 9 draft minute for the minister, which outlines the possible financial and reputational risks associated with potentially withdrawing funding for the bike lane project.

“As [the council] may have started spending its portion of the project funds based on the communications to date that it was successful for receiving state matching funds for the project, [the council] could seek legal action against State Growth for reimbursement of funds it has spent or contracted for on the project,” the draft minute said.

In a statement to the Mercury, Mr Abetz said the grant deed was never signed or executed and so “there was no legal agreement”.

Helen Burnet, Greens member for Clark. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“The Tasmanian government has listened to the overwhelming community sentiment from bus drivers, commuters, Hobart citizens and the business community that proceeding with the bike lane was not the right decision,” he said.

The minister said the decision had been “immensely popular”.

Hobart councillors Louise Elliot, Marti Zucco, Louise Bloomfield, John Kelly, and Will Coats wrote to Mr Abetz on July 9 last year, raising their concerns about the government’s support for the council’s “radical” and “extreme” plan to install separated cycleways on Collins St as part of a two-year trial.

On September 9, the acting general manager of State Roads, Elspeth Moroni, responded to a query from a senior adviser in the minister’s office, outlining why the grant had been awarded and explaining that the project had “been around for a while” and was a component of the Hobart City Deal and the Greater Hobart Cycling Plan.

Ms Moroni also detailed the extent of the minister’s “powers (or not)” to rescind the grant funding.

Two weeks later, deputy secretary of State Growth’s transport division, Cynthia Heydon, emailed Mr Abetz’s adviser to inform him that the only termination clause under the grant deed involved the council defaulting on the agreement.

Hobart acting Lord Mayor Dr Zelinda Sherlock. Picture: Chris Kidd

“To date there [have] been no default events,” she said.

Hobart acting Lord Mayor Zelinda Sherlock said that while the grant deed had not yet been “countersigned” by the government when the funding was withdrawn, the offer had been accepted by the council and the list of grant recipients was published on the State Growth website.

“We acted in good faith based on the state government’s stated commitment to funding this project and are disappointed by the sudden reversal, which negatively impacts the City of Hobart and directly contradicts the objectives of its own Greater Hobart Cycling Plan,” she said.

Ms Burnet, the former Deputy Mayor of Hobart and now a state Greens MP, said the RTI documents showed the move to pull funding was “a unilateral decision” by Mr Abetz and “made against all advice from his department”.