Energy Minister Guy Barnett has again refused to answer basic questions about the future of Project Marinus.
Labor asked Mr Barnett for confirmation that he had rejected another offer from the Federal Government to pay for well over half of the Project Marinus construction cost. He refused to answer the question.
This is not the first time we have asked Mr Barnett about his rejection of Federal Government offers and, as with previous questions, he again failed to answer, instead giving his standard meandering response to a simple question.
After six and a half years pursuing the project, while planning to spend $250 million just to get to a financial investment decision and the cost blowing out to almost $4 billion, we still don’t know who is going to pay for Project Marinus.
The Liberal government’s relentless pursuit of this project has cost Tasmanians $227 per household next year alone, after they broke their promise to de-link from the NEM, so that they could try to build Marinus.
Mr Barnett needs to come clean about whether he has rejected another offer from the Australian government and give Tasmanian people and businesses the confidence they need to continue to invest in Tasmania.
Dean Winter MP
Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction
