Tasmania’s $506 million bailout of TT-Line has put every major government project under a cloud, the opposition and crossbench say, warning Tasmanians no longer know what will be delivered on time or at the promised price.
Much of that focus is on the $1.13 billion Macquarie Point stadium, which the Greens have warned could quickly head past $2 billion.
The TT-Line “equity injection”, announced on Friday, covers $717 million in cost overruns on the new Spirit of Tasmania ferries.
It comes on top of a $75 million equity injection in November’s interim budget and a $400 million increase to TT-Line’s borrowing capacity approved during the 2025 election campaign.
Labor MP and shadow treasurer Dean Winter said the failure had shaken public confidence in every major project.
“Every Tasmanian looks at the Spirits project in the same way and wonders what’s next,” Winter said.
“What project is gonna be not delivered next or, if it is, what the real price is going to be.”
Winter said his concern extended well beyond the stadium.
“It’s pretty much every project that this government has anything to do with,” he said.
Treasurer Eric Abetz defended the bailout and would not speculate on whether the stadium could be delivered without similar problems.
He said the stadium would represent about 1% of the budget and provide infrastructure for up to 60 years.
Walking away would forfeit $600 million in external funding, he said, including $240 million from the federal government, $15 million in AFL capital and $245 million over 10 years for grassroots football.
“It will be an economic enabler,” Abetz said.
Greens MLC Cassy O’Connor again projected the stadium cost would “quickly head past $2 billion”.
She said the Spirits replacement “should’ve been pretty straight forward” and the government had “hopelessly bungled” it.
Independent Franklin MP Peter George said confidence in the government’s ability to manage major projects had “sunk to a new all-time low”.
He called the stadium “neither a necessary cost nor an acceptable risk for a state already deeply in debt”.
Independent MP David O’Byrne backed the bailout but said it “should never have been allowed to get to this point”.
“TT-Line clearly cannot be allowed to fail,” O’Byrne said. “It should never have been allowed to get to this point.”
Earlier this week, the head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPAC) faced Public Accounts Committee questions on the stadium’s rising cost.
DPAC secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks told the committee the $1.13 billion stadium cost was up from a $945 million base estimate.
She said the increase included $97.5 million for delays, $75 million for transparency, $57 million for sustainability features and $63 million in client contingency.
The new Spirit of Tasmania ferries are expected to begin operating across Bass Strait in October.
The state budget is due on Thursday, May 21.
