Cassy O’Connor | Greens’ Leader and Member for Denison
In Parliament today, the Premier refused to rule out further tangible support for the proposed cable car.
Over the past five years in government, the Liberals have done everything possible to get a cable car across the Organ Pipes to the summit of kunanyi.
The Mount Wellington Cableway Company are the Liberals’ pet proponent. They’ve been allocated departmental resources, had enabling legislation introduced, all while the Liberals played stone deaf to the many Tasmanians who want a wild mountain left as it is.
While the Hobart City Council have listened to their residents and voted resoundingly to reject any use of Council land for cable car infrastructure, Premier Hodgman stood by the project and refused to rule out further enabling legislation to support it.
When questioned by the Greens, Will Hodgman would not rule out bringing in special enabling legislation that over-rode the will of Council. All he did was to once again restate his strong support for the project.
The Liberals had the chance to deny they would continue pulling every available bureaucratic and legislative lever to get this divisive project off the ground today. They had the chance to respect the will of the people, and they again refused it.
The majority of Hobart residents, and even Carlton United Breweries, don’t support the MWCC’s plans. It’s time the Liberals started paying attention. It’s past time they dropped this divisive project that would exploit kunanyi for private interests against the public interest.