- In short: The opposition has grilled Jeremy Rockliff about a $1.2m grant promise it says should have been more transparent
- What's next? The premier says "no dollars have been provided" and there has been no conflict of interest
The Tasmanian government is standing by its decision to give a million-dollar grant to a rum distillery with links to a Liberal Party staffer.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff pledged to give the New Norfolk Rum Distillery up to $1.2 million towards its plan to redevelop the Willow Court historic site at New Norfolk in February, as long as it purchases the land, and meets other conditions.
The distillery is headed by Tarrant Derksen, the brother of Justin Derksen, an advisor to State Development Minister Guy Barnett, and a former director of the distillery.
Justin Derksen is also a Derwent Valley councillor and ran as a Liberal candidate in Lyons at the 2021 state election.
Under questioning in budget estimates on Monday, Mr Rockliff said he thought the redevelopment was "a worthy project", but did not answer questions about what funding process it went through, or whether other projects were able to apply for funds.
Mr Rockliff said "a number of caveats" had been put in place before the funding would be given to the distillery.
"No dollars have been provided at all," he said.
Mr Rockliff said those caveats included the distillery contributing at least another $500,000 towards the project, demonstrating an ability to finance and finish the redevelopment, and purchasing the land from the Derwent Valley Council.
That last condition became more difficult to satisfy when Derwent Valley councillors last week said they could not consider a sale of two Willow Court buildings until the site was subdivided, with the distillery since withdrawing its $450,000 offer.
Mr Rockliff also denied that there was any conflict of interest due to Justin Derksen's employment.
"There's no conflict … I haven't spoken to Mr Derksen who works with Mr Barnett at all," he said.
'No opportunity for others'
Opposition Leader Rebecca White said there were lots of questions about the grant, including why it wasn't made public, and what steps were taken to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
"It wasn't competitive, it wasn't public, it wasn't transparent, and the Premier wrote a letter promising a business $1.2 million, and no other business got an opportunity like that," she said.
"And that is very concerning because you're talking about the expenditure of public money here, it's not the Premier's personal money, and there has to be transparency about the expenditure of taxpayer money, and there has to be a process that's followed.
"Arguably all cases like that should go through a competitive process so that you aren't inciting some kind of anti-competitive bidding where some businesses benefit and others never do because they didn't even know there was a grant process underway."
Tarrant Derksen said the distillery had been talking to governments and applying for grants to redevelop Willow Court for more than five years, and only made headway once Mr Rockliff took over as premier last year.
He said any suggestion his brother's employment or Liberal Party connections played a role in the distillery being promised money, provided it meets the conditions, was "ridiculous".
"He has nothing to do with it," he said.
The proposed redevelopment includes a new cellar door, tasting room, restaurant and function space.
Mr Rockliff said the distillery had been approved for a $2 million loan under the Tourism Development Loan Scheme in February 2022, subject to it satisfying conditions including receiving federal funding, but it failed to do so.
