Islanders being taken for a ride
Bruny locals have been squeezed out of ferry process, says Rosemary Sandford
ON a cold, wet, windy Sunday morning, more than 200 Bruny Islanders packed into the CWA hall to voice their concerns about the new Bruny Island ferry contract.
Bruny Island Community Association representatives had met with Infrastructure Minister Jeremy Rockliff in May to express islanders’ concerns and suggest solutions. However, there was no consultation with community organisations before the Government’s announcement on June 28 awarding the new ferry contract to SeaLink Travel Group. We have since been told that, unknown to local community organisations, SeaLink had visited the island before the announcement, to meet privately with selected individuals.
In giving the contract to SeaLink, the State Government has sold part of the state highway, a public asset, to a listed company whose first priority must be to its shareholders, not to Tasmanians and Bruny islanders. With the blessing of our State Government, an interstate company is effectively holding Bruny taxpayers to ransom.
How many times do we have to say, Bruny is home. It is not just another mass tourism destination for the government to sell off to the highest bidder.
The ferry is the only road to Bruny Island. Freedom of movement is the right of all Tasmanians. The Tasmanian Government must guarantee Bruny Islanders this right.
The Bruny Island ferry service is part of the State Highway System and that is the responsibility of the Government on behalf of all Tasmanians. It should not be for sale. Bruny Islanders are in a David and Goliath battle for their right to travel to and from their homes, just like everyone else in Tassie.
The way this ferry contract has been progressed by government smacks of wedge politics and this Government’s penchant for secret squirrel business in its dealings with local communities. The meetings between SeaLink and selected individuals are reminiscent of the cable car consultation process where the Mount Wellington Cableway Company and the Government played wedge politics in South Hobart.
In a July 7 letter from Mr Rockliff to Bruny tourism operators, the Government pits local tourism operators against islanders by promoting g the profits to be made. “The contract provides for flexibility y in responding to demand and does not limit the number of daily sailings or boats to be used nor their capacity…. [from] October 2019, there will be three vessels dedicated to the service 365 days of the year”. This open slather tourism is sheer madness.
Bruny cannot cope with current tourism numbers. It does not need more marketing by an interstate corporation.
It is decision-making on the run by a government that cannot provide Bruny with basic public health and safety infrastructure (public toilets and waste management) and safe traffic management at Kettering and Roberts Point for islanders and visitors.
The Government knows Bruny’s only water sources are rainwater tanks and a limited aquifer at Adventure Bay. Water is brought to the island daily by carrier in peak tourism periods. Our electricity cables from the mainland are ageing and regular power blackouts are legendary, as occurred on Sunday morning. Booking online is a joke from many places on Bruny. As one local said, “It is going to be a cinch booking the ferry when power is out and phones are flat”.
The service provisions in the minister’s letter may benefit tourism operators but they will disenfranchise many islanders, particularly our elderly who can barely exist on pensions and fixed incomes.
Sunday’s public meeting was convened by Friends of North Bruny, Bruny Island Community Association, Bruny Island Environment Network, with the Bruny Island Primary Industry Group. A Mercury article on Saturday, the day before the meeting, said SeaLink would convene a Bruny Island Ferry Reference Group to “facilitate community workshops in coming weeks”. We are told this reference group will consist of SeaLink, local and state government and community representatives. Come in spinner?
While the government-SeaLink Ferry Reference Group will target a small segment of the population, the public meeting resolved, “That we urge SeaLink and the State Government to not proceed with any changes to fares and/
or timetables or the introduction of any booking system for the Bruny Island Ferry without a full and detailed analysis of the potential impacts on landowners and residents and to undertake extensive consultation with the broader community of Bruny Island.”
Finally, David Hutcheon, former owner of Fantasy Ferries, commenting from the Whitsundays, said, “As far as SeaLink vehicular services to and from Bruny Island are concerned, if the traffic is constant and the vessels are mostly full, a booking system would seem to be totally unnecessary, achieving nothing but inconvenience to the customer”.
Perhaps the question to government should be: Is this a potential package deal by government? First, trial it on the vulnerable Bruny Island route where there are not likely to be too many complaints, and next, take over local ferries on the Derwent? According to residents of Queensland’s Moreton Bay islands, this is what happened there.
A check of the SeaLink Travel Group website reveals a huge, asset-rich and powerful national tourism and marketing company. What local Tassie business operator has a hope of outcompeting such an enormous outfit, even in a transparent and fair tender process?
How many times do we have to say, Bruny is home. It is not just another mass tourism destination for the government to sell off to the highest bidder