The Launceston Airport has proposed signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Northern Midlands Council to provide surety over ex-gratia payments to be made to the council in future.
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Federal Labor infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese committed on Sunday to conducting mediation between the two parties within three months of the election if Labor were to win government.
Mr Albanese said he would also seek advice on whether the infrastructure minister could require the airport to pay rates as assessed by the council upfront, and later argue for reimbursement.
“The airport should not be allowed to behave unlike other ratepayers who dispute their rates,” Mr Albanese said.
Airport general manager Paul Hodgen said he did not believe further mediation between the two parties would help, as they had previously entered mediation with the Department of Infrastructure.
“Northern Midlands Council have chosen to ignore the clarification that was originally provided to them,” Mr Hodgen said.
“We’re putting up a Memorandum of Understanding between ourselves and Council, which would put the (dispute) on a legal footing and enable us to have some surety around ex-gratia payments going forward, which would mean they could then arrange their budgets appropriately.
“We’ve talked to (the council) for some time about that but they’ve never shown any interest.”
Northern Midlands Mayor David Downie said his council would welcome a Memorandum of Understanding, so long as there were clear guidelines for how the MoU would be developed.
Cr Downie said the issue was with the federal government.
“We’re asking for the politicians to direct the infrastructure department to sort this out,” he said.
“We’re heartened by (Mr Albanese’s) approach, if he can instruct the airports to pay what is owed, and then they can go through an appeal process on the evaluation.”
Cr Downie said he had not heard from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull or federal Local Government Minister Paul Fletcher.
Lyons Liberal MHR Eric Hutchinson said he had been working with all parties involved in the issue, and hoped the council and airport would be able to come to an agreement soon.
“When the situation was at stalemate late last year, I facilitated meetings with the Federal Minister for Local Government and senior advisers within government which moved the process forward,” he said.
An independent valuation resulted in the airport making an additional $63,868 payment to the council.
The council has disputed this finding, and claims it is owed closer to $1 million.
