Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 23 September 2024

More Stadium Costs Uncovered in Budget Estimates

The cost of the Liberals’ Macquarie Point stadium just keeps growing.

As exposed by the Greens in Budget Estimates today, key parts of the stadium project are not included in its latest advertised price tag.

After originally saying the stadium would cost $715 million, last week we found out the cost had blown out to $830 million. Now we’ve exposed the fact it won’t stop there – there’s huge and costly projects that the government have excluded from their cost calculations.

The Liberals are doing their best to cover up the true cost of this project. They buried $55 million in costs in the depths of their 4,000 page development application, but that’s just the beginning.

Plans to build a three-story carpark under the stadium will be incredibly expensive – but now we’ve heard those costs aren’t included in the stadium’s price tag. Nor are the costs of the transport facility, access road, or moving the Goods Shed.

We’ve always said this stadium was going to cost over a billion dollars. Well, a sod hasn’t even been turned, and we’re already most of the way there.

The Liberals need to stop with their shameless cover ups and come clean with the true, total cost of delivering the stadium project.

Better yet – just ditch the project altogether and spend the money on health and housing instead.

Media release – Cassy O’Connor MLC, Greens Member for Hobart, 24 September 2024

Premier Slips and Slides Over Stadium True Costs

In Legislative Council estimates with the Premier today, the ducking and weaving over the true costs to Tasmanians of the Macquarie Point stadium continued.

The Premier continues to insist, in the face of all the evidence of massive extra unfunded public costs, that Tasmanians will ‘only’ contribute $375 million to the stadium.

That is simply untrue.

At the estimates table today, the Premier could not and would not say how much it would cost to move the historic Goods Shed to make way for the stadium.

He could not and would not explain who will cover the stadium’s inevitable cost over-runs, when it’s patently obvious it will be Tasmanian taxpayers.

He refused to acknowledge Tasmanians will pay more through the $145 million debt to be carried by the Macq Point Development Corporation (MPDC) then Stadiums Tasmania.

The Premier wouldn’t even confirm these entities are owned by the people of Tasmania, and therefore, they will carry the debt.

Tasmanians will also cover the ongoing subsidy for the stadium’s loss-making operations over decades. Millions the Premier simply refuses to count as part of Tasmanians’ financial contribution to his vanity project.

The Premier seems to have convinced himself the private sector will pay for a loss-making, multi-storey underground carpark and the northern access road to the stadium.

Even the consultants who prepared the financial statement report for the PoSS assessment agree, that outcome is highly unlikely.

The bottom line is, whichever way he tries to spin it, Tasmanians will pay through the nose for Jeremy Rockliff’s stadium for a generation or more.