TasWater takeover fails

Liberals take another hit in their push for legislative change

THE Hodgman Government’s late-term legislative push is in tatters after its high stakes TasWater takeover was crushed by the Upper House.

Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein’s contentious plan to take ownership of the water and sewerage enterprise from councils was defeated 10-4 after a debate of more than eight hours in the Legislative Council.

The takeover, designed to speed up work on the state’s dysfunctional sewerage infrastructure, will now be taken to voters by the Liberals at next year’s election.

“The Government remains absolutely committed to our plan to take control of TasWater, because we believe it is in the best interests of the state,” Mr Gutwein said.

“If re-elected, we would expect the Labor members of the Legislative Council to honour that mandate, noting that the Bill would have passed if Labor had supported it.”

Only sole Liberal Leonie Hiscutt and independents Rosemary Armitage, Ivan Dean and Greg Hall voted in favour of the takeover.

Opposition Local Government spokeswoman Madeleine Ogilvie accused the Government of failing to work constructively with councils.

Labor says it will find the money to relocate the Macquarie Point sewerage works, fix the Cameron Bay plant to allow development at Mona and deal with Launceston’s stormwater issues.

“This is the sinking of the Government’s flagship policy,” Ms Ogilvie said.

“The takeover was rushed and hostile and the Liberals did not build a case that it was in the best interests of Tasmania.”

Local Government Association president Doug Chipman welcomed the vote on behalf of TasWater’s owners.

“Clearly there are some issues both local government and TasWater can take out of it,” he said.

“But the bottom line was the Government hadn’t done its homework and it was relying too much on empty spin and rhetoric.”

The Bill’s defeat is the latest setback to the Liberals’ legislative agenda.

Mandatory sentencing for sex offences against children and a Bill to unlock protected forests for logging were defeated earlier this year.

The Government watered down its suspended sentences policy, abandoned a proposal for an earlier school starting age and put a major projects draft Bill out for a second round of consultation.

Both houses are scheduled to sit next week for the last time this year and are unlikely to reconvene before the election due in March.

Independent Ivan Dean, who voted for the TasWater takeover, said the Government had fallen victim to a voting bloc that included the three recently elected Labor members.

But fellow independent Ruth Forrest said the Government had failed to make its case.