Need to run tighter ship

ECCENTRIC billionaire Elon Musk singled out Tasmanian boatbuilding company Incat as a company he would like to do more business with in the future.

In particular, Mr Musk, founder of Tesla cars and the SpaceX project, was inspired by the Derwent Park-based company’s impressive records and he shared a 2013 article about Incat building the world’s fastest ship.

Incat chairman Robert Clifford says in 2014 his company was approached about a ship capable of delivering Tesla cars to destinations across the world. The two companies have discussed other projects since.

The point being – right here in little old Tasmania we are home to a global legend in boat building. That’s something to be proud of.

But we’re also the state with a stunning riverside capital city that can’t seem to be bothered to figure out a public ferry service.

Embarrassingly, we’re also the island that could barely manage to get a new ferry to service a 2.5 km stretch of water. We remember only too well when the new Bruny Island ferry service had to be further delayed because whoever was responsible for the project seemed to forget about low tide.

And now, the state’s largest-ever infrastructure project has been sunk – five years after it was first promised.

Some aspects of the TT-Line saga were admittedly no one’s fault.

In December 2017 TT-Line announced plans to build two new purpose-built ships to replace the current Spirit of Tasmania fleet by 2021.

Shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG was engaged to provide the 212m vessels to accommodate 1800 passengers and up to 600 passenger vehicles. The project was expected to cost more than $850m.

In February this year it was revealed that the German company went broke and TT-Line moved to engage a Finish company to complete the job.

Then yesterday we learned the government was going back to the drawing board and would form a task force to come up with a new plan.

Premier Peter Gutwein blames the coronavirus crisis and says it’s important that the government finds ways to spend that $850m in Australia rather than overseas.

The task force may now finally have a discussion with the internationally renowned Tasmanian boat builder Incat.

But we have to ask, why did it take so long to arrive at this point?

If someone had bothered to engage Robert Clifford way back when, he’d probably have told them that there is no company in Australia that can build ships of that size and that they might need to reconsider the service they want.

If someone had bothered to talk to him about the Bruny Island Ferry maybe it would have fit in the berth at Kettering.

And if someone would engage him to look at options for the Derwent River – who knows what kind of service we could have to service residents and tourists alike.

Now, the point is not to paint Mr Clifford as some sort of demigod. It’s frustrating that we have such skills, expertise and innovation right here on our doorstep but for some reason fail to tap into that and instead end up completely botching major projects.

We must do better. Tasmanians deserve better.

Responsibility for all editorial comment is taken by the Editor, Jenna Cairney, Level 1, 2 Salamanca Square, Hobart, TAS, 7000