TAKE OUT THE TRASH

Libs drop damning data on eve of holiday

JUST weeks after the State Government was returned to power, it has released damning figures on housing and health.

The reports were released on its website yesterday afternoon — just hours before the close of business for the Easter break. Updated De- cember quarter Department of Health and Human Services statistics reveal the wait time for priority housing has risen to 63 weeks and the number of applicants has increased to 3512 — up 245 applicants from September.

And new health data shows the Royal Hobart Hos- pital lags well behind the rest of the state for surgery admissions within clinically recommended times.

THE State Government is hosing down fears of another energy crisis after the Basslink cable went down for the second time in three years.

Damage during routine maintenance caused the electricity interconnector to fail, with the latest outage expected to last until April 14.

The last outage, in 2015-16, combined with a drought affecting Hydro generation to spark an energy crisis lasting six months.

That failure is the subject of a $122 million claim for damages by the State Government.

The 2015 failure was expected to be fixed within 60 days before difficulties blew out the time frame.

At the height of the crisis, diesel generators were shipped into the state at a cost of more than $60 million.

But Energy Minister Guy Barnett said the state was in a different position and able to manage its energy security.

“There’s no risk to energy security in Tasmania,” he said.

“We are very confident in our energy security, it hasn’t been compromised.”

Hydro dam levels sit at 36.9 per cent, well above the record low of 12.8 per cent they fell to in April 2016.

“The water levels are very high for this time of year. They are well above those recommended for this time of year,” Mr Barnett said.

The gas-fired Tamar Valley Power Station had not been activated as back-up, he said.

Maintenance by a contractor that began on Saturday caused the damage at a transition station in Victoria.

Expertise and equipment from overseas is being flown in for the repair job.

Last week Mr Barnett signalled the damages claim against Basslink, and government lawyers have lodged a notice of dispute.

The case for a second $1 billion interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria was just this week listed by Infrastructure Tasmania as one of five proposals considered na- tionally significant for the state.

Labor energy spokesman David O’Byrne said Mr Barnett had failed to inform Tasmanians of the outage, instead relying on a Basslink statement.

“Has Guy Barnett briefed the state’s major industrial businesses?” Mr O’Byrne said.

“What has he been doing since the outage except for trying to hide it?

“The actions of Guy Barnett trying to cover up this outage closely mirror those of Matthew Groom in 2016.”

Greens spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the state needed a plan to become 100 per cent renewables-powered by 2022.