Michael Ferguson (left) relinquished his infrastructure portfolio in late August due to his failed management of Government Business Enterprises (GBEs) TT-Line and TasPorts. Photo: Facebook.
Facing a no-confidence motion in Tasmanian Parliament over his poor handling of state assets, Deputy Premier, Treasurer and former Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson has resigned from politics.
On Tuesday (15 October), Premier Jeremy Rockliff told media he retained “full confidence” in Mr Ferguson but he would respect the Parliamentary Liberal Party’s unopposed election of Guy Barnett as the new Deputy Premier.
In the past few days, the Greens and several independent MPs have voiced their support for Labor’s intention to bring a no-confidence motion against Mr Ferguson. Yesterday, the Opposition Leader Dean Winter said this was due to him being “responsible for the biggest infrastructure stuff-up in Tasmanian history”.
“The new Spirits project is five years delayed, $500 million over budget and when the ships eventually arrive, they will have nowhere to berth,” he said. “Labor should not have to do the Premier’s job for him.
“But given the complete failure of leadership on display from the Premier, I can confirm Labor will bring a motion of no confidence in Michael Ferguson. I can also confirm we have received clear advice that debating this motion will not impact the passage of the State Budget this week.”
Last week, the Public Accounts Committee heard witnesses give testimonies over Mr Ferguson’s handling of the GBEs. This has prompted calls for a further inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s industrial negotiations with TasPorts, TT-Line’s new Spirit ferries and berthing issues.
Former Labor and now independent MP David O’Byrne has called for the TasPorts and TT-Line boards to be dissolved, executive management sacked and administrators to be appointed.
Opposition Leader Winter said his party had put forward positive proposals to turn the project around, but Premier Rockliff had refused to offer any solutions or reveal the status of the projects since Mr Ferguson’s first resignation from infrastructure.
“The Premier could not commit to the new Spirits both being in service, at full capacity, by the summer of 2026,” Mr Winter said.
“He also did not commit to doubling day sailings of the Spirits this summer to recover lost capacity and support the tourism and hospitality businesses that have been impacted by the Spirits stuff-up.
“The Premier has also refused to issue a Ministerial Direction requiring TasPorts to host the new ships here in Tasmania for free. Instead, the Tasmanian taxpayers will have to fork out up to $8000 a day to keep them in Hobart or even hide the ships in Singapore.”
Premier Rockliff has pledged to reform Tasmania’s GBEs with a new charter that prioritises the state’s interests.
The Greens agreed an examination of the structure, governance, functioning and purpose of GBEs and state-owned companies (SOCs) “is long overdue”. However, party leader Dr Rosalie Woodruff said it “needs to be through a comprehensive independent review process”.
“The last review of corporate governance of GBEs and SOCs was 16 years ago,” she said. “We have recently seen the dysfunction at TT-Line and TasPorts, and their broken relationship with each other and government that is costing Tasmanians dearly.
“We also know other GBEs, such as Forestry Tasmania and TasRacing, are secretive, loss-making and provide no public benefit. Hydro Tasmania and TasNetworks also need far greater financial transparency and accountability over their investment decisions worth billions of dollars.”
Dr Woodruff told media that without extensive questioning in Parliament, Tasmanians would still be in the dark about many of the issues facing the Spirit of Tasmania project.
“A significant part of why we have no confidence in this minister is because of his refusal to acknowledge his own role in the mess,” she said.
“Even on the day he resigned from the infrastructure portfolio, he refused to accept any fault, saying he was only taking the step to avoid ‘distractions’.”
