Last month, the government announced it would move to acquire public land, owned by the Hobart City Council, for a cable car to the Mount Wellington summit. 

On Wednesday, Ms O’Connor questioned the transparency of the state’s expressions of interest process for private development in parks. 

“This is just more of the same from majority governments in Tasmania who come into office and think that public assets are theirs to do deals over,” she said. 

But Mr Groom said the project still had to go through the normal planning processes which he insisted were open and transparent.

“The government got independent advice on this and that advice said that there was an issue in relation to landowner consent and it provided a way forward for the government,” he said. 

Hobart Lord Mayor Sue Hickey said she was only made aware of the decision to acquire the land on the day it was announced. 

“It’s got a long way to go … it’s still got to go before the public and all the regulations and rules,” she said. 

This week, debate arose over a photo of Mr Groom with cable car proponent Adrian Bold, which was posted to Facebook in 2014, recently deleted, and then re-posted again on Tuesday. 

Mount Wellington Cableway Company’s Jude Franks said the organisation had not asked for or received any favours from government.