Our Place offers to illuminate your understanding of the government’s recent media statement calling for help on the stadium project.

HEADLINE: Eric Abetz issues a call for ‘Market Sounding’ process participants.

Definition: Market Sounding – scratching around among your mates for some readies to help you out of a jam.

Meanwhile, Tasmanian ‘entrepreneurs’ rear back with open hands waving around their ears saying “don’t look at me!” as they push their executive chairs away from the boardroom table and ready their three-metre barge poles.

PRESS RELEASE: Eric Abetz, Minister for Business, Industry and Resources, 17 December 2024

Next step in Macquarie Point Urban Renewal project

Interesting concept of ‘next’ – as if they had a plan they’ve been working through. Suddenly, the team who couldn’t run a bath has realised they forgot to use a plug.

From the very start of this fiasco there has been an assumption of funding from ‘external sources’. Three years in, they look around and realise there’s no-one bowling them over in the rush to invest. The ‘smart money’ knows you bide your time and wait until all the hard yards are done using taxpayer largesse, then you swoop in and negotiate a favourable deal that allows you to privately profiteer from public money.

Why do you think the AFL is only prepared to cough up $15M, most of which they’ll get back in fines for unmet construction deadlines? 

The Tasmanian Government has opened registrations of interest for participation in an upcoming market sounding process as the next step in the Macquarie Point Urban Renewal project.

Could he sound more disingenuous if he tried? Basically he’s saying, “we want to know if you’d put your name on a list of people who might be interested in taking part in some, as yet, undefined ‘process’ at some future unknown date?”

The market sounding process seeks feedback on the procurement and delivery options available for the Macquarie Point Precinct, including investigating opportunities to harness private sector investment and innovation.

In other words:  We have this pesky bloody group of planners at the TPC who’ve seen through our subterfuge in presenting them with an inadequate submission, full of data holes, misinterpretations, incorrect definitions and inadequate detail. We’re actually going to have to submit a proper document that acknowledges all the additional spending we’ve managed to ignore so far, or pretended didn’t apply, despite their guidelines clearly stating it did.

Minister for Business, Industry and Resources, Eric Abetz, encouraged development, construction, and advisory experts to register their interest as part of this process.

Would you buy a used car from this man? What’s in it for these ‘experts’? Or is Erica just looking for some free advice?

“We are seeking feedback on who is interested in working with the Tasmanian Government on this landmark project and what ideas they may have,” Minister Abetz said.

Because we’ve proven ourselves to be such reliable business partners in the past! Just look at our record……oh, wait….. well…..but… no, we said we were sorry for the Spirit stuff ……and the port upgrade….an , quite frankly, we’re completely out of ideas.

“This project will unlock decades of economic investment, jobs, and opportunity.

Note how the language has morphed from ‘could’ or ‘has the potential to’ as used by the various consultants in their financial and cost-benefit analyses, to ‘will’. Even if these benefits were to come to fruition, such could be said for many uses of this site, producing the same benefits, if not more, at half the cost.

“It will create a bustling precinct for all Tasmanians and visitors to enjoy.

Yeah, nah. Take a drive around any stadium precinct and tell me if you agree. Go out to the DEC, for instance and see the only movement90% of the time is from a few tumbleweeds rolling through the carpark.

You simply can’t have a ‘vibrant precinct’ around a big vacant hole that sits unused for 96% of the year (that’s assuming the 44 events under the optimistic usage scenario).

There are so many other options that could be built at Macquarie Point that would see people drawn to the area on a daily basis.

And they’re options much more likely to attract private investors. Granted there needs to be some government funded draw cards, but that $240M grant recently quarantined from future GST payments would go a long way to funding a truly vibrant precinct heart and much needed housing.

“This is why we’re building the right team of experts who can deliver our vision for the Precinct through innovation and best practice which will be vital for the project’s success.

No mention of the MPDC? Perhaps that’s because the TPC has questioned its ‘expertise’ following its delivery of a less than adequate submission to the PoSS process. Twelve pages of missing, incorrect or lacking appropriate detail that fails to address the guidelines, is hardly a vote of confidence in the government ‘team’! If “innovation and best practice” is “vital for the project’s success” it’s not an auspicious start and questions the expenditure of funds that have brought us this far.

“We need a team of innovators who have the capability to deliver on our ambitious vision supported by our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future.

Frankly, their ‘vision for Mac Point doesn’t extend beyond the stadium walls and some fantasy that a 23,000 seat stadium is going to attract people to Hobart beyond 44 occasions a year. This is an admission that the current MPDC is completely out of its depth.

“The transformation of Macquarie Point will shape Tasmania for generations and I know many will be excited at the prospect of being involved.”

Can’t argue with that! The debt burden alone will be felt by Tasmanians for the next 20-30years. None of the sums we’re tossing around represent money that actually exists anywhere but on a loan sheet. Even the Fed’s $240M will only manifest once work starts on the whole precinct, outside the stadium wall’s ‘cordon sanitaire’ that the first submission to the TPC has tried to draw around the site definition. Servicing that loan places enormous opportunity costs on future budgets. ‘Efficiency dividends’ will see millions of dollars shaved off staffing, facilities & maintenance and services in every portfolio.

Market Sounding is the first step in considering a private partner to activate the Macquarie Point Precinct and is used prior to the commencement of a formal procurement process. It involves discussions with market participants to gain feedback on key aspects of the procurement approach and its delivery.

Translation: “Help! So far, we’ve stuffed up every major project we’ve tried to bring to fruition and we need someone to save us before we drown in this quagmire of our* own making! Come on, all you corporate vultures out there. Lend us a hand.” (BTW: Platinum, who we said in February were on board, are not actually on board at all.)

*Technically, Premier Rockliff’s making, when he signed a secret deal handing over Tasmania’s future to a corporate bully from the AFL.

Our Place is a group of Tasmanians who wish to see development that responds to the needs and values of Tasmanians, and which benefits Tasmanians, not vested corporate interests that seek state lands and large taxpayer subsidies be given them. https://nonewstadium.au/our-place/