00:00Melissa Cunningham started her business four years ago, transporting dogs between Tasmania and the mainland.
00:09Our business solely relies on the spirit of Tasmania.
00:12For her business to remain viable, she needs to be able to book a space on the ferries for a large van.
00:18But this is becoming increasingly difficult.
00:21We've got to beg to get on. We're on wait lists, which doesn't work when people want to know they want to move dogs.
00:26A lot of the time they only know within a week that they want to move the dogs and we just can't get the extra vehicle space on the boat.
00:33Melissa expected that the new, larger Spirit of Tasmania vessels would be in service by now.
00:39The delays in the rollout have been costly.
00:42We drew the line in the sand. If they weren't here by this October school holidays, we couldn't go on.
00:47This is just one of many stories that the ABC has been told about delays in booking vehicles on the current Spirit vessels.
00:54Some are reporting that the earliest large vehicle bookings aren't available until mid next year.
00:59And there's still no date for when the new, larger ships will actually be able to start operating at full capacity.
01:06I think everybody wants some time frames around this project.
01:09They're already five years late. They're half a billion dollars over budget and we still don't know when they're going to arrive.
01:16But that could be known on Thursday when the government responds to a report on using a temporary berth at Devonport
01:23and how to house the new ships while the permanent berth is built.
01:27We have received advice from the experts. It's very extensive and comprehensive.
01:34We'll be responding to that and the Premier will be making that very clear later this week.
01:40There'll also be a new Minister at the helm, former Sorrel Mayor Kerry Vincent, soon to be Infrastructure Minister.
01:47Kerry Vincent has common sense. He knows how to get things done. He works hard and he's the man to get that job done.
01:54But pressure remains on the two government businesses central to the bungled rollout, Tasports and TT Line.
02:01TT Line claiming the port operator delayed access to important areas for 11 months.
02:07I'm humbly and firmly of the view that the steps taken by Tasports were appropriate.
02:14But as I said, I won't get into the finger pointing.
02:17Businesses that rely on the spirit just want everyone involved to play nice.
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