Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Community Services ) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was pleased to be on the Hobart waterfront last Friday on a very cold morning with the Tasmanian Minister for Infrastructure and the Premier of Tasmania, along with my federal colleagues Labor Senator Carol Brown and Independent Andrew Wilkie, for a very important announcement for Hobart. We were able to announce $50 million of federal government money from the Infrastructure Fund going to remediation of the rail yard site in Hobart. This is an iconic site in Hobart, 8.4 hectares of land on Hobart's waterfront that will be remediated and become available for development. It is, if you like, so iconic it is Hobart's Circular Quay or it could be our Southbank. It is really a special part of the local area and has connections to the wharf and to Salamanca Place. We are only limited by our imagination on what the site could be and what it could mean for Hobartians and for Tasmanians generally.

Part of the announcement was the remediation of this rail yard site. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something about development on the waterfront of Hobart. Included in the announcement was the Brook Street Pier redevelopment. The federal government will be putting money into that. This is really important for vessel-berthing as well as for local ferry and cruise services out of the Hobart harbour. There is tremendous tourism potential, tremendous education potential, social housing potential and a whole range of things in this announcement of $50 million for the Hobart waterfront. My federal colleagues, particularly Senator Carol Brown, and I have been lobbying and meeting with ministers for over 18 months to try and get this project up, so we were very, very pleased to hear that announcement in Hobart last week. At the moment a lot of work is going on at the site. There is a rail yard on the site, along with transport and trucks. A whole heap of work needs to be done on this site, and it is now ready for the bulldozers to go in and clean it up.

This announcement also comes at a really important time for the Hobart and Tasmanian economy. People would be aware that our economy in Tasmania does have its challenges, but this really shows the optimism of the local community in terms of what they hope to achieve. We will go to community consultations. We have set up a local authority to do the consultations, so that we can bring with us the local community and tap into ideas of developers and the community alike in terms of what this iconic space on the waterfront can really be. We are expecting around $1 billion in investment for this 8.4-hectare site. So many developers are interested in what this site could and should be for Hobartians. I am really pleased to be part of a government that took the initiative and saw the potential of this remarkable site.