Derwent ferry ‘set up to fail’

Plan falls short, says Labor

THE government’s announcement of a cross-Derwent ferry service represented a broken promise and next year’s trial service had been set up for failure, Labor says.

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Michael Ferguson called for expressions of interest from private operators to run a one-year trial of a Bellerive to Hobart weekday peak-period ferry service to begin in early 2021.

But in state parliament on Thursday, Labor’s Shane Broad accused the government of falling well short of what was expected.

“Yesterday you tried to give the impression of progress in the delivery of the Derwent ferry service,” he said.

“You launched an expressions of interest process when you should have actually been launching a boat.

“The Liberal Party’s 2018 election promise was for a commuter ferry service between Bellerive and the city operated by Metro Tasmania.”

The government promised $10m for terminals between 2019-20 and 2020-21, and set aside $1.5m over three financial years to help Metro run the service. A report last year revealed Metro would need increased funding to run the frequent voyages needed to attract passengers.

“The announcement you made yesterday was for a limited hours service, not operated by Metro and with no additional money or infrastructure,” Dr Broad said.

“You have deliberately set this service up to fail.”

But Mr Ferguson rejected the criticism. “Yesterday’s announcement was welcomed by key stakeholders, was welcomed by local government, it was welcomed by the RACT,’’ he said.

“We are committed to delivering the ferry service on the Derwent River, this term exactly as we promised.”

Mr Ferguson said Metro did not have experience running ferries.