Primary Industries and Water Minister Gavin Pearce privately backed the foreign buyer of Rushy Lagoon before later criticising the sale, Labor told parliament this morning.
Labor MP Shane Broad said Pearce spoke with UK forestry asset manager Gresham House on November 28 last year, while the purchase was still being negotiated.
The 21,745-hectare property near Cape Portland is Tasmania’s biggest farm.
Broad said Pearce told the company he was familiar with the property, having previously sold water troughs to the farming operation.
He said the minister expressed support for the plantation proposal and told the company landowners should be able to do what they wanted with their properties within the law.
Broad said Pearce also offered to help troubleshoot any pushback and gave the company his personal phone number.
Asked whether he denied the conversation took place, Pearce said: “No, I do not deny that.”
He then said he was “not confirming or denying that”. “I talked to a lot of people,” he said.
“Whoever has my number, Mr Broad, whoever has my number is their business and my business. Would you like it?”
Pearce later referred to “the early stages of … the conversation that you obviously refer to”, again declining to confirm or deny it.
He said his support for prospective agricultural operators looking at Tasmania was “a matter between them and I”.
The exchange drew sustained interjections, with the speaker warning Liberal MP Michael Ferguson and Labor MP Dean Winter.
Broad accused the state government of launching a “political witch hunt” into a lawful purchase after the money had already been committed.
Pearce responded that the money “wasn’t their money at all”.
The minister said his concern was with the federal approval process, not Gresham House itself.
“I have no issue with foreign investment. I have no issue with plantation forestry. I have no issue with Gresham House,” he said.
“What I have an issue with is the federal government’s process and the $69 million Clean Energy Finance Corporation money and the Plantation Investment Fund being used to inappropriately advantage one purchaser over another.”
Pearce has criticised the sale since Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers approved it in July, saying at the time the decision showed Canberra was “completely out of touch” with regional Tasmania.
“Our farmers have been loud and clear on the impacts this decision will have,” he said.
Much of Rushy Lagoon is set to be converted to pine plantations under the $140 million project, which is forecast to create more than 190 jobs.
