Tassie Guiding Company Claims Over $600K From Government for Marketing Costs

 

Tasmania’s premier guided hiking company, Tasmanian Walking Company, has claimed back $600k over three years from the Tasmanian Government for marketing costs to promote the Three Capes Walk, which the company exclusively guides.

The Three Capes Walk, which connects Cape Pillar and Cape Huay on the Tasman Peninsula, was privatised via funding from the state and federal governments in 2015. Tasmanian Walking Company (TWC) was given exclusive rights to the walk for ten years or 15,000 walkers, whichever comes first.

The cost of upgrading the track and building public and private huts cost the Tasmanian and federal governments $40 million combined. It now costs walkers between $500 and $3,395 to trek the 46km, four-day, three-night trail.

Is this part of the agreement with the government?

The agreement between Tasmanian Walking Company and the Tasmanian Government commenced on the 30th of September 2018 and stipulates:

• Tasmanian Walking Company pays $50,000 or 5% of its annual profits (whichever is greater) for the annual lease and licence to operate to the Tasmanian Government
• Tasmanian Walking Company cannot charge more for marketing costs than it has paid for its lease and licence but can charge up to that amount
• The agreement between TWC and the Tasmanian Governments lasts for 10 years, or until 15,000 walkers have been through, whichever comes first

Documents released under a Right to Information request this week revealed that in the 23/24 financial year, Tasmanian Walking Company paid $299,990 in rent and licence fees to the Tasmanian Government.

TWC then claimed $247,023 for marketing costs in the same financial year, reducing their out-of-pocket costs for exclusive use of the hike to $52,967. In 2022/23, the company was charged $302,312 and reimbursed $234,683, and in 2021/22 charged $234,500 and reimbursed $127,473.

Over the three years, this equates to being compensated $606,179 of Tasmanian taxpayer money for marketing of the privatised hike. If the annual licence and lease fee is just 5% of its yearly profits, and TWC paid $290,990 in 2023/24, then its profits would have been approximately $5,999,800.

Greens MP and spokesperson for Parks and Public Lands, Tabatha Badger, said to The Mercury, ‘It is unacceptable that Tasmanian taxpayers are continuing to pay the marketing bill for a private company that has also been gifted the exclusive right to profit off a special part of [the] state’s national parks.’

Further Privatisation of National Parks

The popularity of the Three Capes Track has kick-started a range of projects that seek to privatise access to public lands, particularly in lutriwita/Tasmania. Plans to build a ‘premium’ tourist development on Lake Malbena in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park were quashed after the company was placed into liquidation by the Federal Court. The company, Wild Drake, owed $18,000 to the Wilderness Society and Tasmanian National Parks Association from a 2021 Supreme Court appeal regarding the project.

The Tyndall Ranges Track, a Tasmanian National Parks Association initiative, has been highly controversial and is scheduled to start taking hikers in 2029. Meanwhile, whispers about the iconic South Coast Track getting the Three Capes treatment died down after uproar in 2022.

The Tasmanian Liberal Government seems intent on pushing the ‘pay to play’ method, cashing in on the state’s natural beauty to maximise tourism profits and offering companies like Tasmanian Walking Company first dibs on new projects. The Three Capes Walk is just one of many luxury wilderness experiences offered by the company, which charges $8,316.25 per person for a guided luxury lodge experience on the iconic Overland Track. Meanwhile, smaller tourism operators, such as Franklin River Rafting, receive zero government support and have to operate in the same fickle, seasonal, and costly adventure tourism industry.

A spokesperson for the Tasmanian Walking Company defended the taxpayer-funded reimbursement as value for money, pointing out, ‘Our multi-day walks are a key reason people visit Tasmania.’  Ms Badger was quick to point out that the money could be spent elsewhere, stating, ‘It’s absolutely cooked and the total wrong priority for public money, when our Parks and Wildlife Service are drastically under-resourced’.

Feature photo by Emma Abberton