Labor claims the “embarrassed” state government has sent the first of its new Spirit of Tasmania ferries to Scotland to avoid having what it calls a ‘billion-dollar billboard of incompetence’ docked on home soil.
With average temperatures plummeting towards zero in Finland, where the Spirit ferries are being built, operator TT-Line has been forced to seek warmer waters elsewhere in Europe.
“To ensure the vessel’s safety and preservation, we will temporarily relocate it to Leith, Scotland, where conditions are more suitable,” TT-Line boss Bernard Dwyer said on Tuesday.
“This move is necessary, as the vessel is not designed for the extremely low ambient temperatures anticipated in Rauma.”
Opposition Treasurer Josh Willie argues the vessel should instead be brought to Tasmania, despite the required Devonport port infrastructure being incomplete.
“It’s an inconvenient truth for Premier Rockliff to try and hide a 211-metre ship and that’s clearly what he’s trying to do now,” Willie said.
“There are real questions here on how much it’s going to cost to store the ship in Scotland, whether it’s even going to be leased and what it means for $100 million of local content and local jobs.”
Those questions were put to Premier Jeremy Rockliff on Wednesday, who avoided revealing the cost of harbouring the vessel.
“We look forward to ensuring that our Spirits are sailing up as soon as possible the Mersey River, but in the meantime, all the decisions that we will be making will be in the best interest of taxpayer funds,” he said.
“The Spirits arriving [in Tasmania] is a cost in terms of fuel and so we need to first get the ship out of the icy waters to ensure they’re in warmer waters temporarily.”
Rockliff said there would be “no impact” on contracts for local companies to fit the vessels out and that Scotland offered better accessibility in terms of leasing options.
“[We’re] still committed to the fit out in Tasmania,” he said.
“It’s certainly far easier to have it within the proximity of an easier lease arrangement in terms of the geography and the cost of getting to the people that are going to lease the ships.”
TT-Line are continuing to work with a broker to find a suitable lessee of the vessel until it can enter service in Tasmania in the coming years.
