00:00Selling the historic, publicly owned Treasury building in central Hobart has been a tempting
00:07option for the Liberals for almost a decade.
00:10We're a government that's open to business. You are an opposition and a former government
00:16that slammed the door shut.
00:17Despite unsolicited offers from private investors, the process was put on hold in 2020, then
00:23Premier Peter Gutwand saying the COVID pandemic wasn't the right time. But now, the idea
00:29is back on the table.
00:30Obviously it's now 2024 and we're all about growing the economy, creating more jobs, delivering
00:37opportunities.
00:38The building will be put on the market next year, the government promising to engage with
00:42the community and business sector to ensure that public access is at least partially retained.
00:48A whole lot of opportunities for government to provide terms and conditions with respect
00:53to any expression of interest.
00:55Several hundred Treasury staff work in the building. Any sale could result in their relocation.
01:01The Liberals sell this to the highest bidder and they get a reasonable price. That revenue
01:06will be quickly consumed by capital, relocation costs and then office space for a couple of
01:13hundred staff.
01:15Business groups back the plan, but the opposition and the Greens are accusing the government
01:19of selling public assets to prop up the budget.
01:22It belongs to the Tasmanian people and here we've got a government pretending it belongs
01:27to them and it's theirs to privatise. They've got it all wrong.
01:32Yet another budget balancing act.
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