Posing awkwardly with fishing rods and eskies in the back of a car in a social media video, three state MPs are eager to spruik a $400,000 spend on the feasibility study for a new barge to Queensland tourist icon Moreton Island.
Jobs, improved lifestyle, easier access are among the benefits if the barge is feasible, the local politicians say, and they also promise to stump up $4 million for the infrastructure.
But four years on, the service is yet to materialise and the state government appears less than keen to tout the findings of the study, despite it reportedly finding in favour of the barge.
Recently it insisted on keeping the document secret despite the six-figure cost to taxpayers.
The refusal to release the 110-page report is just the latest development in the lengthy saga to have a barge operate from Scarborough on the Redcliffe Peninsula to Moreton Island, about 40 kilometres north of Brisbane.
A previous service from Scarborough to Moreton Island, the Combie Trader II, stopped operating in 2008.
Since then, residents in the Redcliffe area, who can easily see the sands of the island from their peninsula, must take a lengthy detour south either to the Port of Brisbane to catch the only car barge to the destination or to Pinkenba for a passenger ferry.
Local community left waiting
Nick Tzimas, the Commerce and Industry Redcliffe Peninsula president, said the project "just needs to happen".
"We've been waiting for some time and it's a very big deal for tourism and the economy.
"Why it's taken so long? I don't know, but people are trying."
In 2014 the service appeared to be back on the agenda when the then LNP Newman government granted a permit to a shipping company, but the project stalled, reportedly over problems with a landing site on the island.
Three years later in November, 2017, just before the state election, local Labor MPs Yvette D'Ath, Steven Miles and Chris Whiting released the social media video to announce the Palaszczuk government was spending $400,000 on a business plan to consider Scarborough boat harbour as a launching site for a future barge.
In early 2018, Ms D'Ath told local media, the business case had found in favour of the barge with the best launching site to be on the northern arm of the harbour or spit and the government vowed to contribute $4 million to the project.
In March that year, Ms D'Ath told state parliament that construction was planned.
"Lastly, and this will not be the only time I speak about this … we will build a rock wall and a road to support it,'' she said.
"We will seek expressions of interest by 1 July this year. I really hope that there are operators out there eager to put in an expression of interest to operate this service.
"It is a fantastic announcement."
A year later the government confirmed the original tender process had failed to identify a suitable proponent and another expression of interest was called in 2020, this time with consideration of a possible landing site outside the Scarborough harbour.
At the same time, the government announced it would spend another $400,000 to develop a master plan for Scarborough Harbour.
Once again, however, an appropriate provider for the barge could not be found and only last month, the Transport Department confirmed it had restarted a new "invitation to offer" (ITO) process to again seek an operator.
Department refuses to release $400,000 report's findings
Several months before the new ITO was announced, the ABC sought access to the original now four-year-old business case or "feasibility study" for the barge under Right to Know (RTI) laws.
But the Transport Department in November refused access to the document on the grounds it would compromise the new ITO process.
Right To Information officer Cathy Hunt said the study would provide information in relation to only the specific sites considered in the report "which would not be available to those tenderers who may wish to utilise locations not canvassed in the report".
"This would reduce the competitiveness of the tender process,'' Ms Hunt said.
"I believe that in this instance, and at this time, the public interest is best served by encouraging this current deliberative process and avoiding disclosure of information that may impact on the department's capacity to properly explore and pursue the best option for the provision of the barge service."
Ms Hunt did reveal the report provided comment on selected locations and potential configurations for those locations and estimated costs for the discussed configurations.
"A range of engineering and preliminary environmental and planning assessments to guide concept layouts and engineering costs were considered in preparing the report,'' she said.
'Providing more information only enable better outcomes'
One of the few operators trying to establish a new barge to Moreton Island questioned the decision to suppress the report.
Prominent local businessman Josh Kindred, the owner and director of the Newport Marina, is part of a group which proposed the barge service operate from his Newport Marina complex.
He called for the report to be made public.
"The more information that is available for everybody will enable the process to work better."
Mr Kindred said his group had spent 18 months working with 10 people in government to try and get the go-ahead for his proposal.
"We are nowhere further than we were 18 months ago,'' he said.
"But we are not sure what we are going to do with the new ITO."
The ABC asked Transport Minister Mark Bailey if he believed the refusal to release the report was justified.
In response, a spokesperson for the department said it was unable to release details of the feasibility study in case it disadvantaged one of the proponents.
"To give the tender process every chance of success and ensure no proponent is disadvantaged, we are unable to release any details pertaining to the feasibility study for the barge,'' the spokesperson said.
Ms D'Ath has been contacted for comment.
