Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Launceston might be about to lose a $20 million cadet facility project, a project that has been in the pipeline for the past seven years. We will lose it because of bureaucracy and red tape. The government delivered on my request for documents relating to the Launceston City Deal and, in particular, projects under the Department of Defence, and boy those pages are an entertaining read—all 4,000 of them.

We're still chipping away at them—there's a lot to get through—but when it comes to the proposed land transfer to the North Launceston cadet facility, the pages tell a story of UTAS being uncooperative and causing unnecessary delays. Emails and letters show frustrations at UTAS changing their position on the deal several times. One email even says that UTAS has made 'unreasonable attempts to leverage the circumstances'.

There are issues around basic transparency and progress on these projects. The government are halfway through their term in government, and they haven't been delivering for the people of Launceston. The Launceston community deserves more than this bumbling bureaucracy. We deserve to have the projects that have been promised—preferably quicker than in seven years.