Michael Ferguson has paid a price for the debacle surrounding the commissioning of the new Spirit of Tasmania ships.

He handed over the infrastructure portfolio to Prime Minister Jeremy Rockliff, but retained his role as Deputy Premier and Treasurer of Tasmania and continued to blame Spirit operator TT-Line for the problem.

He did not want to take the blame, but rather to remove the “unnecessary distraction” from the project, which still has major obstacles to overcome.

He was shareholder minister for TT-Line and TasPorts when costs and delays occurred with both the Spirit ships and Devonport’s port infrastructure.

But for Mr Ferguson, this is far from the end.

He remains Treasurer and will deliver the Budget in a matter of weeks, at a time when the Tasmanian economy is under pressure from all sides, underlined by Saul Eslake’s report, which warned of a bleak economic outlook for Tasmania in the coming years.

Mr Ferguson is still the second most senior cabinet member and continues to play a central role in the government’s machinations.

The loss of infrastructure would be a major blow – given his pride in the ongoing work on the Bridgewater Bridge.

But it could also provide clarity to the government, as there is still a lot of infrastructure work that is either underway or urgently needed.

These range from the modernisation of the Southern Outlet and motorway improvements to work at Macquarie Wharf in Hobart for the icebreaker Nuyina.

Ferguson’s cabinet colleagues said he had done a “fantastic” job in the role.

But his time in the infrastructure and transport departments was anything but smooth.

Bus connections restricted

Last year, it was a common sight in the suburbs of Launceston and Hobart: crowds of people gathered at bus stops and wait.

Metro Tasmania subsequently implemented a “temporary adjustment of operations” to reduce losses and, after minimal consultation, removed around 170 daily services from the timetable altogether.

Services cannot be delayed or cancelled if they are not available.

Students, disabled people, elderly people and workers were often left stranded in the suburbs.

That was in August last year, and “temporary” has of course become “permanent”; the reason for this was a serious shortage of drivers.

Metro’s shareholder minister at the time was Mr Ferguson.

Track record

Politics is a tough business and it often happens that the public forgets the small successes and only remembers the failures in public service.

Mr Ferguson has increasingly become one of those ministers in Tasmania who have been subject to intense public scrutiny in their respective departments for years.

And it’s not just because the buses aren’t running on time or not running at all.

Making things happen in a small island state is never easy, but in Tasmania, promises come and go on a regular basis.

Some of them were held under previous ministers but then postponed or cancelled.

A common ticket system for public transport was promised, but this was never implemented due to exploding costs. Hobart was promised a bus terminal, but this was never realised.

The government funded an additional bus lane on the Southern Outlet, but this too resulted in cost explosions and delays.

The disused transit corridor of Hobart’s northern suburbs is still underused. The idea of ​​a light rail was reduced to a bus rapid transit service, but then light rail was brought back on the table. It is still in the planning stages and there is no sign of it being implemented in the short or medium term.

The government describes the reconstruction work on the Bridgewater Bridge as a great success after years of promises and sees it as being on schedule.

But a feasibility study for another bridge over the Tamar River in Launceston – seen as a key solution to growing traffic problems in the city’s northern suburbs – is years behind schedule.

On the ports side, the Federal Government also appears to be increasingly frustrated with the slow progress in improving the quay facilities in Hobart for the icebreaker Nuyina and with the ports suffering from ‘concrete cancer’.

For years during these introductions and promises, Mr Ferguson was either Minister of Infrastructure, Minister of Transport, Minister of Shareholders of the relevant GBE or Treasurer.

Health comes and goes

Infrastructure and transport were not the only challenges for Mr Ferguson.

As health minister, he oversaw ambitious reforms of the state’s public hospital system.

But as time went on, public health doctors and nurses grew frustrated with Mr Ferguson, accusing him of blaming them for the problems rather than taking responsibility.

A senior hospital doctor burst into one of his press conferences at the Royal Hobart Hospital in 2018 and told him that “the number of patients attending major surgery at the (hospital) was exceptionally low.”

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An attempt to ease pressure on staff through a health summit was not enough to save his job, with the Australian Medical Association calling it a missed opportunity and saying a “new approach was needed”.

In 2019, then Prime Minister Will Hodgman sacked Mr Ferguson from the health portfolio.

The decision was widely welcomed by medical professionals, but Mr Hodgman said Mr Ferguson had done an “outstanding job”.

Few politicians in senior cabinet positions emerge unscathed from this experience, and Hodgman is not the only one praising Ferguson.

When Prime Minister Jeremy Rockliff announced on Monday that he had accepted Ferguson’s resignation from the infrastructure portfolio, he thanked him for his “tireless work and dedication”.

And his cabinet colleague Eric Abetz said Ferguson had done a “fantastic” job as infrastructure minister.

The Civil Contractors Federation also expressed its gratitude and praised him for the Bridgewater Bridge, the new wing of the Royal Hobart Hospital and the improvements to the Midland and Bass Highways.

Strong results in polls

Throughout his political career, Mr. Ferguson has maintained strong electoral favorability in Bass.

In the state election in March, he received by far the most votes in the primaries and helped the Liberals win three of the seven seats in this constituency, despite the earlier resignation of the popular former Prime Minister Peter Gutwein.

He has also launched a country-leading poker machine reform that would make Tasmania the first state to make the use of pre-dealt cards mandatory.

Mr Ferguson stood firm despite industry opposition and, despite the delay until the end of next year, there are no signs he will back down from his promise.

This could be a legacy that a minister could invoke.

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