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Rockliff promise of 'world's tallest chocolate fountain' came out of nowhere, but documents show years of grants and lobbying
When it comes to eye-catching election promises, it's hard to look past "the world's tallest chocolate fountain".
It was midway through the Tasmanian election campaign last year when Premier Jeremy Rockliff strode into the Cadbury factory in Hobart to make the announcement, alongside tourism developer Simon Currant.
And it wasn't just a chocolate fountain; it was pitched as an entire "chocolate experience".
There would be a "bespoke chocolate studio", a chocolate lounge, an "immersion into chocolate making" and even an arboretum.
"This will be MONA-esque," Mr Rockliff told the media.
Then came the public funding.
Mr Rockliff promised $2 million for planning, designs and approvals, then another $2 million for public site works and a further $8 million for the precinct.
It seemed to come out of the blue.
But it turns out, it had been bouncing around with Tasmanian public servants for over two years.
Internal communications and reports — obtained under right to information — show undisclosed grants to help the developer gauge demand and no available detailed business case or economic impact study when Mr Rockliff promised the funds.
And before he made the promise, documents show public servants were under the impression that the developer was already funding the first $2 million themselves.
They also wrote advice that the developers would ultimately seek one-third funding for the entire construction cost, but this has since been ruled out.
Mr Currant has a list of successful tourism ventures across Tasmania, from Strahan Village on the west coast, to Pumphouse Point in the wilderness world heritage area.
His next venture — the "chocolate experience" proposal — made its way through the doors at the Department of State Growth in February 2022, when Mr Currant asked for funds for a demand study.
The department was happy to oblige, it just needed a bit more information about what the project actually was.
"As discussed please see attached as a very quickly put together overview," Mr Currant wrote to the department's deputy secretary.
Having looked over the 15-page project summary, the department recommended providing a $79,800 grant to Simon Currant and Associates (SCA) for the study, matched by Cadbury parent company, Mondelez International.
A funding pathway for the grant was "identified" — it would come from a tourism hospitality stream.
It was not publicly disclosed and was one of the only grants in the stream to go to a private tourism developer outside of established grant programs.
The demand study was created, based on an online survey of 827 people to gauge interest in the chocolate experience.
Only 12 out of 44 pages of the publicly funded document were released to the ABC showing generic information like population and tourism visitor data, the rest was redacted as commercial in confidence.
A month later, the developers asked for more funds from State Growth for a feasibility study, using the demand study to show the project's "potential contributions to the Tasmanian visitor economy".
A letter from Mondelez backing the idea was also provided.
The department approved this funding request, so another $70,000 grant was provided to help the developers update financial figures and develop a public relations strategy and a corporate strategy.
This second grant was also placed under the tourism hospitality funding stream, and not publicly disclosed.
State Growth's tourism and hospitality team seemed a little uncertain on some of the details, well before Mr Rockliff made his funding promise.
With ministers set to face questioning in budget estimates, they sent part of the minister's brief to Mr Currant for his feedback, in case it came up.
An internal departmental email noted that some details in the funding agreement were "unclear".
"The paperwork we have access to does lack some context given that we came to the administration of the (grant) deeds later," it reads.
Mr Currant and business partner David Inches were pleased with progress, with Mondelez "excited by and supportive of" the project.
Mr Currant took the project to the Office of the Co-ordinator General, and it started to appear in the office's fortnightly briefings with Mr Rockliff.
State Growth deputy secretary Mark Bowles also kept the premier up to date.
"I've verbally updated the premier and he's keen to show what support he can for the project," Mr Bowles told Mr Currant in an email.
The department started preparing a brief for Mr Rockliff in mid-2023 and asked for updated information from Mr Currant, who sent a document intended for investors, requesting state servants sign non-disclosure agreements.
A brief was completed in November, saying the demand study had "ambitiously" projected the project would bring 34,000 additional visitors to Tasmania, and that the department was reviewing all the information.
"It is felt that further questions may emerge from this review, and these will need to be resolved by the developer prior to any further advice being provided to government," it reads.
While State Growth appeared to have some questions, it was full steam ahead with the Office of the Co-ordinator General — an office that works to attract investment in Tasmania.
It started to prepare a case for the developers to apply for government funds through the Tasmanian Development Board, with Tourism Tasmania supporting it as filling a gap for the 'young families' tourism market.
A meeting was arranged between Mr Currant, Mr Inches and Mr Rockliff on February 9, 2024, during which the developers brought a paper to update him on.
It's unclear what was in this paper.
However, a meeting brief by State Growth appeared to advise some caution.
"While the project is innovative and could deliver good outcomes for the Tasmanian economy … the request is very significant and will require a detailed commercial review," it reads.
"(Simon Currant and Associates) will need to provide a detailed proposal and make all project information available for verification and analysis to feed into a business case for government support.
"Given the scale of the request, State Growth may consider funding an independent analysis of the proposal to verify its economic and social benefit to Tasmania."
A few days later, more State Growth advice was written for the premier.
It stated that the developers had requested one-third of the total construction cost for project, on top of the planning costs — a government contribution that, at that stage, could be a further $25 million to $30 million.
A month later — on March 10, 2024 — Mr Rockliff walked into the Cadbury factory with Mr Currant to make a funding promise.
The first $2 million of the promise was for "planning, designs, approvals", which Simon Currant and Associates describe as phase two.
But advice to the premier a month earlier stated that the developers were already funding this.
"SCA has indicated it is independently funding Phase 2 … costing $2 million," it reads.
A spokesperson for SCA said the total cost of the planning and design phase is "significantly higher" than what was known at that time, and the remaining costs were privately funded.
The project also involved two electric ferries to transport visitors to and from the Chocolate Experience site, requiring upgrades to the Brooke Street pier on the Hobart waterfront — originally described as an extension.
But the SCA spokesperson said the pier would not be extended.
SCA is yet to access the second $2 million in funding, which is largely for public site works.
It plans to submit a development application with Glenorchy council later this year.
A spokesperson says it has provided a business case to the government.
The government is yet to formalise the process for the final $8 million — or determine what the funding will be spent on.
SCA says the total project cost is now $155 million.
"SCA will not be seeking any further grant funding from the government," a spokesperson said.
When asked if Mr Currant will be an equity partner in the project, giving him a stake in its profits and losses — as noted in a government document, seen by the ABC — SCA responded that "the community will benefit through increased investment, more jobs through construction".
SCA said Mondelez International — one of the world's largest confectionary companies — has "no financial stake in the project", but is providing land lease and access to Cadbury branding.
The last Cadbury factory tours in Hobart closed in 2010.
Tours also ended at the Cadbury factory in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 2017, and Mr Currant told the department he had "brought back together" the team from that venture.
Part of the feasibility study involved a "study tour" to the Lindt experience in Switzerland, which could be similar to the scale of the tour planned in Hobart.
An SCA spokesperson said the new Chocolate Experience in Hobart would target more modern tourism demands.
"What SCA is proposing is not comparable to the previous tours," they said.
The partly government-funded demand analysis estimated it could add $104 million to the annual spending by tourists.
This week, Mr Rockliff said it would be a major contributor to the state's tourism economy.
"One in six Tasmanians are employed in the tourism and hospitality sector," he said.
"We have backed this project with a $12 million investment to get the project shovel-ready and commence initial site works, including public walkways, cycleways and headworks, subject to agreed milestones."
The ABC asked Mr Rockliff what level of detailed business case and economic analysis he had access to when he made the $12 million funding promise, and if the $2 million was already privately funded, but this was not clear in the response.
