The state’s upper house MPs are unlikely to be swayed in their decision-making from local government’s objection to a TasWater takeover by the state government.
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Members of the Legislative Council contacted on Friday said they were still waiting for the government to give more detail on the plan to seize control of the organisation and for evidence to be provided to a select committee on the issue.
Mersey independent MLC Mike Gaffney said there had been marked improvement and real progress made by TasWater in recent years.
He said only now did the state government want to step in and convince the community, through slick marketing, that it had the ability to take over the organisation.
“Over the past 30 months, the government has continually used the ‘mandate’ catch-cry to introduce legislation,” Mr Gaffney said.
“This is not the case for water and sewerage; there was no mandate and it was not a policy position before the 2014 election.
“The Minister for Local Government has been advised poorly and this will possibly hurt the government come the next election, which is a pity.”
Meanwhile, Windermere independent MLC Ivan Dean said, at this stage, he did not have a position on the matter.
“I want to get all of the evidence from all sides, from the state’s side, from the local government side,” he said.
“I want to also know why Launceston and George Town abstained.
“It does concern me that we still have boil alerts in this state and the situation at Ti Tree Bend and the problems we’ve got there, that’s really upset and annoyed me for many years.”
Western Tiers independent MLC Greg Hall also said he was yet to make an informed decision and would wait until the bill had been tabled and the select committee had done its work.
Rosevears independent MLC Kerry Finch, who will sit on the select committee inquiring into TasWater, said he would listen to both sides of the debate before making his decision.