Labor calls for more Spirit day sailings (23/8/24)

The Examiner

Tasmanian Labor leader Dean Winter has called on the state government to double day sailings for the Spirit of Tasmania. Video by Aaron Smith (23/8/24)

Transcript

00:00The spirits of Tasmania, the new ships are incredibly exciting for Tasmania.

00:04What they mean is 40% extra capacity coming in and out of the state.

00:08It means more for our exporters and more tourists coming into the state.

00:12But it is a complete debacle now.

00:14The delivery of these new ships are three years late

00:17and by the time the new berth facilities are finally ready

00:20to fully cater for all of the new capacity

00:23it will be five years delayed and over $500 million over budget.

00:27We're calling on the government to commit to more day sailings

00:30over this coming summer and shoulder seasons.

00:33Up to 150 more day sailings, locking them in,

00:37making sure that we've got that additional capacity

00:40for this upcoming summer season,

00:42means that we'll get more tourists into the state,

00:45which means more businesses here in Launceston,

00:47across the North West, all the way down to the South.

00:50We need to get as many tourists as we can into the state

00:53to make up for the loss of capacity from the spirits not being online.

00:56The other thing we've announced is that we think one of the key letdowns

01:00for the tourism and hospitality sectors

01:02has been the lack of somebody from that sector on the TT line board.

01:06The TT line board needs to have better representation

01:09from the people that it serves

01:11and that's the tourism and hospitality sectors.

01:13I want to see somebody with a background in tourism

01:16sitting on that board so that they can make sure

01:19that the interests of this important sector is realised going forward.

01:26.

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