You are here

Treasury - Macquarie Point


Cassy O'Connor MP  -  Monday, 6 September 2021

Tags: Macquarie Point, State Budget, MONA

Ms O'CONNOR - Page 30. It has the Macquarie Point capital contribution of $65 million over three years. Then it has a footnote which says, 'This initiative provides funding as an equity contribution to a government business or other entity that is outside of the general government sector'. What does that mean?

Mr GUTWEIN - Macquarie Point is a government business but outside of the general Government sector.

Ms O'CONNOR - What does that -

Mr GUTWEIN - It's the Macquarie Point Corporation. Going back to that discussion we had a moment ago about equity transfers, we make equity transfers when it is to either pay down debt or to build an asset. In this case it underpins the development work that is going on at Macquarie Point.

Ms O'CONNOR - I understand some of that funding will probably go towards relocating the sewage works?

Mr GUTWEIN - No, that is separate, I think.

Ms O'CONNOR - Is it? Could you help the table understand what your Government's vision is for Macquarie Point? As you would be aware, the vision of the Government has changed three or four times since the area of land first became a possibility. There's a growing concern that it's just going to be sold off to wealthy unit buyers and a concern about whether or not there'll be public space there and whether it will be a place for the people.

Mr GUTWEIN - I don't have the Macquarie Point plans in front of me but I make this point: we accepted and, as best we could, represented the MONA vision in terms of the plan taken to the Hobart City Council. Then the Hobart City Council, if memory serves me correct, put in place a Specific Area Plan. In that, there were parcels allowed for science and other uses, which is largely where we're looking at the Antarctic Centre. There were significant amounts of public open space. There was a documented plan that the council signed off on and it hasn't changed from that.

Ms O'CONNOR - Okay, good. As you know, a SAP basically provides a planning bubble in time and space so, even though there may be some provisions within a Specific Area Plan, there's a lot of flexibility.

Mr GUTWEIN - I would need to check whether it was a SAP or a PPZ, which -

Ms O'CONNOR - Particular Purpose Zone.

Mr GUTWEIN - I do know that the vision and the parcels, including the public open space, were all considered as part of that planning process with the Hobart City Council.

Ms O'CONNOR - Okay, so just to reassure some of our constituents, who are a bit worried -

Mr GUTWEIN - We haven't moved off that vision nor the plan that was taken to Hobart City Council.

Ms O'CONNOR - Thanks.