Tasmania Labor presses Rockliff on mystery proposal, Firmus fund

Premier Jeremy Rockliff told Tasmania’s parliament last week that a mystery unsolicited proposal under assessment is not a data centre, as Labor pushed for the proposal and the formula behind a Firmus community benefit fund to be made public.

Why it matters

Labor leader Josh Willie pressed Rockliff to release the proposal, asking why Tasmanians should not see what the government is spending on assessing it. Asked directly whether the proposal was a data centre, Rockliff said “No.” He said Treasury’s unsolicited proposal guidelines were being followed, on the advice he had received, but gave no detail on the proponent or the project. Separately, the government has not said how contributions to its new community benefit fund covering Firmus’s St Leonards site will be calculated, leaving the obligations facing major project proponents in the state unclear.

The fight matters beyond this one proposal. Tasmania is working through a wave of large energy and data infrastructure proposals, and the unsolicited proposal process and the benefit fund are two of the few levers the public has to see how those projects are assessed and what they owe the community.

The numbers

The government is paying almost $100,000 to a Sydney consultant to assess the unsolicited proposal, according to Labor. The community benefit fund, announced on 14 October, would apply to Firmus’s St Leonards site, Rockliff confirmed, though no payment figures, start date or compulsion mechanism have been set. Pulse Tasmania reported that Firmus’s three Tasmanian sites, St Leonards, Wesley Vale and George Town, are expected to together draw roughly 444 megawatts at full build-out, a load that would probably make the company Tasmania’s single biggest electricity consumer. Firmus says St Leonards and the first stage at Wesley Vale are fully funded, with funding for George Town and the second Wesley Vale stage to follow once development applications are finalised.

Firmus withdrew its planned share market float earlier in October to seek private funding instead. Business Minister Felix Ellis told parliament the cancelled listing has no impact on the company’s planned Tasmanian operations, and that Firmus and Hydro Tasmania are well into talks on a long-term electricity supply deal spanning all three sites, with any agreement contingent on each site actually going ahead.

What’s next

Labor has not said whether it will pursue the unsolicited proposal documents through a parliamentary order, and the government has given no timeline for releasing the benefit-fund formula or confirming how St Leonards contributions will be set. The Hydro Tasmania power agreement remains under negotiation, with its terms tied to each site’s development applications progressing.