Spirit V reaches Australian waters, Liberal waste not finished yet

Today, Spirit of Tasmania V is finally set to arrive in Australia.

Unfortunately, the ship’s long-awaited arrival doesn’t mark the end of the hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Liberal waste associated with the project that will go down as the biggest infrastructure stuff-up in Tasmania’s, if not Australia’s, history.

So far, the Liberal Spirits waste includes:

• $81 million bailout to the Finnish shipbuilder
• Another secret $13 million secret bailout payment to the shipbuilder
• $403 million cost blowout for Berth 3
• $9 million to upgrade the hulls after building the wrong fenders
• $6.4 million storing Spirit IV in Scotland
• $900k per month storing Spirit IV in Victoria
• $75 million bailout in Tasmania’s budget – with significantly more to come in the upcoming budget.

The final cost of keeping Spirit V hidden in Scotland and Victoria is still to be added to the tab, and future bailouts are likely to be in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Over the past 13 years the Tasmanian Liberals have mastered the art of wasteful spending, and there is no greater example than the Spirits replacement project.

With Premier Rockliff placing Eric Abetz in charge of cuts to essential services to recoup some of the waste, the least the Liberals can do is be transparent about the final costs Tasmanians will have to pay.