Choosing to walk away from a second shipbuilder, the government says that given the impact of the pandemic it wants to investigate spending our money in Australia rather than Europe.

This plays well in a populist, superficial way, but let's be honest about what it means.

We will be waiting longer for the ships to enter service and we will pay more, much more, for the privilege.

And that's if they can even be built in Australia, which is far from certain.

The reality is we do not build ships of this size in our country and those we do build - predominantly for the Navy - tend to come at a premium.

One possibility is the government's taskforce will take its time looking into it all and then recommend that they be built by an established shipyard overseas.

In the meantime, the government can be seen to be standing up for "local" jobs while delaying a major spend, allowing those funds to be used elsewhere or otherwise to prop up the budget bottom-line.

If they continue down the path of building the ferries in Australia, then federal money would be needed to subsidise the project.

The premier gave a couple of clues about that prospect by appointing a federal representative to the taskforce and revealing he had informed another state government of the decision before Tasmanians.

If a deal were to be stitched up, South Australia would be best placed to build the Spirits given existing naval shipbuilding.

Again though, politics would play no small part in such a decision.

It remains to be seen how Tasmanian businesses might benefit from a home-grown project, and if it would be worth the cost to taxpayers, along with the delays.

Not worried about votes, the TT-Line board had advised the government to stay the course and build the ships in Finland.

Now, after two false starts, we're back to square one with more uncertainty than ever surrounding the replacement of the ferries.

Let's hope Tasmanians don't come to regret this decision.