Labor has conceded that it will be difficult to reinstate TasWater as a council-owned organisation if it takes government at the next election.
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Opposition local government spokeswoman Madeleine Ogilvie said should the state government achieve its objective in transforming the company into a government business enterprise, undoing this would be a complex and “substantially costly exercise”.
But she suspected that the legislation would be delayed in the upper house with low chances of passing.
“With competing legal advice, I anticipate there will be a long, long discussion about this which is likely to see the TasWater issue go beyond the next election,” Ms Ogilivie said.
“If this legislation does get through, we will look at if and how it could be unwound.”
The government’s proposed takeover of the council-owned entity was a high-profile item for discussion at the start of the three-day Local Government Association of Tasmania annual conference which started on Wednesday.
LGAT chief executive Katrena Stephenson said an Infrastructure Tasmania report released last week on the government’s planned expedited capital works program was “quite limited in the detail”.
“It doesn't provide any financial modelling in terms of its impact on the state budget or impact on the level of debt on the new corporation,” she said.
Dr Stephenson said the plan relied on mainland contractors and outsourcing; increased costs of which had not been factored in.
She said the broad powers under draft legislation given to the relevant minister to direct the newly formed government business was a concern and could even override the industry regulator.
In her address to delegates, Greens local government spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the sped-up capital works program was making a cautious timeline a political timeline.
She said after 2024-25, payments will be half the amount received now and reliant on profit.
Dr Woodruff said the GBE could decide not to pass dividends onto the councils if it was determined that doing so would prevent it from reaching its objectives.
She said this would in turn force councils to either charge higher rates or cut services.
Treasurer Peter Gutwein said no government business had a legislated requirement to be profitable but had to be sustainable.
LGAT president Doug Chipman said the organisation had no plans to heavily campaign against the government during the upcoming state election race.
He said available legal options would be discussed if legislation passed through Parliament.