Pure imagination: Tasmanian premier vows to build world’s largest chocolate fountain if re-elected

Dubai is home to the world’s tallest skyscraper, Burj Khalifa. Nepal boasts Mount Everest. Soon, if Jeremy Rockliff gets his way, Tasmania could be home to the world’s largest chocolate fountain.

The Tasmanian premier on Sunday appeared to take inspiration from Willy Wonka by pitching himself to voters as the dreamer of dreams during a visit to the Cadbury chocolate factory – the largest in the southern hemisphere – near Hobart.

Channeling his inner Wonka, Rockliff said that if re-elected his Liberal government would deliver “the greatest thing to happen to tourism since Mona”.

What could rival the Museum of Old and New Art? The world’s largest chocolate fountain, which would “rewrite the ‘must-see’ list for every visitor that comes to Tasmania”, the premier enthused.

Related: Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff pledges to open protected native forests to logging

The new “chocolate experience” would include the chocolate fountain, a premium chocolate studio, a chocolate lab with a make-your-own chocolate bar, a chocolate emporium, a café, a playground “and so much more”, the premier said.

It would sit alongside the Cadbury factory on the River Derwent but would be a separate enitity backed by the government and “tourism pioneer” Simon Currant.

“Two hundred million chocolate bars are produced right here at Cadbury’s at Claremont employing some 450 Tasmanians. We want to build on that, add value,” Rockliff said alongside Currant.

“You can imagine some glass windows looking out over the beautiful waters and you would experience, as you come through here, the new building, the world’s largest chocolate fountain, for example, a chocolate lab – an opportunity where Tasmanians can make their own Tasmanian chocolate with Tasmanian ingredients.

“Once again we will reignite the wonderful tours that many thousands of Tasmanians can well remember with great fondness and with great affection.”

Adding to the sense of wonder, he said a returned Rockliff government would kick in $12m to make the “chocolate experience” a reality, including $2m to help with design and planning, another $2m for early site work and then $8m for unspecified activities if “agreed milestones” were met.

According to Currant, the project – the result of “15 years of research and collaboration in conjunction with Cadbury” – would cost $100m and “bring a world of chocolate delights, wonder and excitement” to the Apple Isle.

The Guinness World Records says the world’s tallest chocolate fountain is owned by Austrian chocolatiers Confiserie Wenschitz GmbH. It opened in 2019. The chocolate waterfall stands at 12.27 metres with 1,000kg of liquid chocolate cascading down its panels.

It is unclear whether the public would be able to taste Tasmania’s proposed chocolate fountain or what sort of food safety regulations the proposal would have to meet.

Guardian Australia contacted the Tasmanian premier’s office for further details but did not receive a response before publication.

The Cadbury factory is a place of nostalgia for many Tasmanians – particularly since the company ended public tours in 2008 due to more stringent health and food safety regulations. Cadbury owners Mondelez International were contacted for comment on Sunday.

The state’s Labor opposition leader, Rebecca White, said it would be “really exciting to see new experiences come to life” and her party would “love to see the visitor experience happen again”.

But she said the government had questions to answer regarding transparency and decision-making.

“The Labor party has already announced a $50m no-interest loans program that would be eligible for operators in the visitors economy to apply to and I would welcome the proponents of the Cadbury visitor experience to make an application under our program,” she said.

“It’s really important that when a government is handing out taxpayer money, they do it transparently. We don’t want to see what happened at the New Norfolk distillery where the Liberal party made commitments and were unable to explain what the criteria were for applications.”

In 2023, questions were asked about a $1.2m grant to a New Norfolk distillery made outside of normal grant processes after a Liberal minister requested “private consideration” of the application.

Related: Tasmania’s unique electoral system means all bets are off on the Liberals’ future

Independent Tasmanian MLC Meg Webb questioned the government’s priorities saying the money could be better spent by providing additional funding to critical government services like healthcare.

“That [$12m] is a huge amount of money when you think about the ways it could be spent in areas that are absolutely screaming out for government support and are actually government responsibilities,” Webb said.

“It’s just virtue signalling to large corporates. They’re throwing everything at the wall in a desperate attempt to stay in power.”

Tasmania will head to the polls a year before an election was due after Australia’s last remaining Liberal premier, Rockliff, called an early election for 23 March.