Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader
In the past fortnight, Tasmanians have been taken by surprise at the number of public assets the Liberals have put up for potential sale or transfer, behind closed doors through the Office of the Coordinator General.
Just what is the Office of the Coordinator General? Who is it answerable to? How many unsolicited bids from private developers is it assessing and what public assets are in play? These are questions we will be asking in Parliament this week.
So far, it has been revealed through questions in Parliament that the iconic Treasury Building, the Hunter Street Arts School, the TasTAFE building in Hobart and St John Street offices in Launceston are potentially up for grabs.
The Liberals seem intent on selling the farm and are using the Office of the Coordinator General and unsolicited bids process to ensure maximum secrecy and minimum scrutiny.
Basically, what ‘open for business’ means under this government is that if you are a private developer with your eye on a public asset like the Treasury Building or Arts School, not only will the doors to the Minister for State Growth and the Office of the Coordinator General be wide open, but the red carpet rolled out to make your glide through the process as comfortable as possible.
The owners of these assets, the Tasmanian people, have to date been completely left out of the picture by the Liberals who show all the signs of believing these public assets are theirs to sell in secretive deals.
This is what ‘open for business’ means under a Liberal majority government.