Wednesday 1 October 2003

DUKE ENERGY PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT - IMPACTS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY 2003

 Mr FINCH Question - Mr President, my question is to the Leader for the Government. Is the Leader aware of increasing concerns of land-holders, particularly in my electorate of Rosevears and elsewhere, affected by gas pipeline work carried out by Duke Energy? Is the State Government aware of what seems to be a delaying process by Duke Energy by dragging its feet over the issuing of acquisition notices? Such notices are normally issued before the start of a project affecting land-holders, yet I have been informed only 11 notices have been reported issued to date. In view of uncertainty over Duke's commitment to its Tasmanian project, can the State Government give an assurance to affected land-holders that they will be urgently and adequately compensated for the disruption and other effects of pipeline-laying on their land?

Mr AIRD - I thank the honourable member for his question. I do not know if I heard the honourable member say that the uncertainty of the Duke involvement in the project is throwing the project into jeopardy.

MrFinch - Yes.

Mr AIRD - Well, that is not my understanding. I know there has been speculation about Duke selling assets in the Pacific area, and they have said that they have undertaken a review of those assets, but the project itself undertaken by Duke was on the basis of legislation that was in place which related to acquisition and other aspects of land which was being used for the laying of the pipeline. I expect, Mr President, as would everyone else, that Duke would adhere to the legal requirements in relation to that issue