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ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Tasmanian government has announced it will again look to sell the state's treasury building. It's got the backing of the business community, but opposition parties are warning the government is trading the state's heritage for a short-term budget "sugar hit".

Transcript

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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