Legislative Council, Tuesday 6 August 2024

Ms FORREST question to MINISTER for ENERGY and RENEWABLES, Mr DUIGAN

What is the expected time frame for the Marinus Link FID (Final Investment Decision) to be finalised?

ANSWER

Mr President, I thank the member for the question and am very pleased to report to the House positive steps forward taken by Marinus Link Proprietary Limited in recent days around securing a cable slot which will enable the project to roll on.

Ms Forrest - The question is not related to the cable, minister, it is about the FID.

Mr DUIGAN - That is exactly right, and you will find in the news today what was talked about was the FID date, which is now, as I understand it, scheduled for May 2025. Of course, that had originally been scheduled for December 2024, but the FID date is a matter for the Marinus board and they have put forward a FID date of May 2025.

I note the completion date of the project is unaffected by changing the FID date. Also, importantly, it does allow more fact-tested information to be fed into our FID process. The government is conducting a whole-of-state business case to look at Marinus and to inform our FID decision and I think the quality of the numbers going into that business case are highly important for the state of Tasmania.