Spirit of Tasmania ferry scandal threatens to sink government
For six months, the Tasmanian Government has wrestled with its decision spend £450m on two new ferries to link it with Australia, despite not having ports large enough to accommodate them.
In a startling mirror-image of Scotland's own ferry fiasco, costs to build the both the dual-fuel ferries and their berths have ballooned since the plan was laid down – and now the ports are not expected to be ready till next year at the earliest.
Since December, one of the ferries – Spirit of Tasmania IV – has languished at the Port of Leith in Edinburgh, at a cost of £22,000 per week to the Tasmanian taxpayer.
And this week the bill came due for the state's Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff, who faced the collapse of his 'rainbow coalition' and lost a no confidence vote, with the ferries one of several reasons he had lost the faith of parliament.
In October, the scandal cost the frontbench position of the government's Treasurer and Deputy Premier Tasmanian Liberal Michael Ferguson.
Tasmania's ferry fiasco is not too dissimilar to Scotland's woes (Image: Jane Barlow) Now the state stands poised to head to the polls if a new deal cannot be worked out and a replacement for Mr Rockcliff be found.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Spirit of Tasmania in Scotland isn't going anywhere soon.
While Spirit IV was docked at Leith, its state-owned operator, TT-Line, searched for an someone to lease it until the port was completed in Tasmania. But negotiations collapsed in early March.
The state government told TT-Line to bring Spirit IV back to Tasmania and it was due to depart on 26 May, before being delayed by poor weather.
During that time, engineers found technical problems with the ship's liquefied natural gas systems.
'The government is awaiting further details in relation to a new expected departure date, but it is understood that this work will take some time,' the state's transport minister, Eric Abetz, said last week.
READ MORE: Huge fiasco ship mothballed in Scotland at a cost of £23k a week 'Farcical': Newly-built ferry to be mothballed in Edinburgh 'for two years'
When questioned about the delays in parliament, Abetz accused the Labor opposition of 'talking [the ferry] down all the time'.
'I say thank goodness for the weather, because she might have been well into the deep oceans and then suffer a mechanical issue, the full extent of which I am not appraised of,' Abetz said.
'We want to make sure the ship is safe and, even more importantly, the crew is safe. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure the protection of the crew.'
However, the ship has become something of a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, despite its status as a national embarrassment Down Under.
Ian Stirling, who founded a whisky distillery right next to where the Spirit of Tasmania is docked, told the Guardian his long-term nautical neighbour has delivered patrons, with a side of political drama.
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