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New Bass Strait ferry
The Federal and Tasmanian
Governments signed yesterday a
formal agreement covering the
$26 million purchase of a ferry to
replace the Empress of Australia.
The Minister for Transport,
Mr Morris, and his Tasmanian
counterpart, Mr Groom, signed
the agreement in Parliament
House.
Under the agreement, the Fed-
eral Government will provide a
$26-miIlion grant for the mod-
ification and purchase from West
Germany of the vessel Nils
Holgersson. The grant will also
cover the upgrading of associated
terminal facilities in Melbourne
and Devonport.
The new ferry can carry 900
passengers and 440 cars, more
than twice the capacity of the
Empress.
Mr Morris said the agreement
could not have been reached
without the co-operative effort
and goodwill of Mr Groom.
And Mr Groom endorsed Mr
Morris' comments, saying the
agreement had been reached
"without acrimonious fights on
the front pages of the news-
papers".
Mr Groom said the new ferry
was a long-awaited initiative, but
he expressed some caution about
the fact that Tasmania would
have full financial responsibility
for the operation of the service.
"We of course have some con-
cerns about the fact that we do
have financial responsibility for
the operation and that is some-
thing we've obviously got to look
at carefully," he said.
Operational arrangements
would need to be found to ensure
that Tasmanian taxpayers did
not have to meet a financial defi-
cit on the ship.
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