Question: WHAT IS LABOR’S POSITION ON THE STADIUM?
Answer: … anybody? … (crickets)
It can be difficult to ascertain exactly where Tasmanian Labor stands regarding the third Tasmanian AFL stadium, proposed to be at Macquarie Point.
From the time of its announcement and up to the election in 2024, Labor MPs and candidates were handing out ‘NO STADIUM’ stickers from their electoral offices, and pointing to the unaffordability of the debt incurred by borrowing $400million. They called for the contract to be renegotiated and proposed a revamped UTAS York Park as a financially viable alternative to what they were then warning could be a billion-dollar impost on State debt.
That left voters with no doubt about where they stood and probably garnered them considerable support, if only in preferences. More than 60% of primary votes went to candidates who expressed their opposition to a third stadium in their campaign material, hence the Liberals now governing in minority.
After the election, however, and despite then leader Rebecca White dangling the carrot of a minority Labor led coalition on election night, that lack of ambiguity collapsed in line with her leadership. Since then, it’s been a chronicle of weasel words and sidestepping around the issue as the internal machinations of the State ALP have played out in a process to which few of us are privy but leaves us shaking our heads as we search for some sort of narrative thread in their responses. This, despite the government lurching from one mishap to the next calamity as it wastes time and money trying to provide a justification for its Premier’s arrogant and self-serving flights of fancy.
On 1 January this year, Dr Gruen released his Independent Review of Macquarie Point Stadium, the outcome of his near year-long research, commissioned by the State in response to a request by the JLN as a condition for their support for confidence and supply in the minority Liberal government. It has been described as ‘scathing’ in its exposé of this financial, planning, and environmental folly. (You can find a summary here: https://nonewstadium.au/gruen-review-faq/)
Two Days later, Tas Labor released the following media statement:
ALP Response: “Gruen report more evidence the Liberals can’t deliver” – 3 January 2025 – Luke Edmunds MLC, Shadow Minister for Sport
We’ve run this through the ‘politico-speak’ translator…
Today’s release of the Gruen report has raised serious questions about Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s ability to deliver the stadium he promised Tasmanians would be on time and on budget.
Translation: We’re keeping our powder dry until we see what everyone else says. We’ll describe it as raising serious questions when we really know that Gruen’s review has completely annihilated any hope of the Government’s promise of ‘on time and on budget’ coming to fruition.
Labor wants to see a stadium built in Hobart because it will create jobs and opportunities for Tasmanians and deliver the AFL and AFLW sides the state deserves. We want to see it delivered on time and on budget, but for that to happen the project needs to be managed properly.
Translation: We realise we can have our teams without a costly stadium that will mostly create jobs and opportunities for skilled workers from the mainland and move our state closer to bankruptcy, but we don’t have anyone with the backbone to tell it like it is, so it suits us in the meantime to conflate the two.
We don’t want you to question whether there might be other developments that would create as many jobs and opportunities that could be proposed for the stadium site using the trades and skills we already have here on-island, and we certainly don’t want you to realise that no amount of ‘proper management’ can build a stadium ‘on time or on budget’ at that site, nor make it pay back your investment.
The evidence presented by Dr Gruen paints a picture of yet another project being mismanaged by the Liberals. The last thing Tasmania can afford is a repeat of the Spirits fiasco when it comes to the stadium, but many are rightly worried that’s exactly where we’re headed.
Translation: We’ll only draw attention to the project’s unaffordability in this context, so we get to mention ferries again. We don’t really want you to consider that a third stadium is not needed, and therefore a complete waste of money for the state because we want you to believe that we still support it without qualification.
We don’t want to offend our misguided union backers, or AFL tragics, because we’ve painted ourselves into a corner by conflating the team and the stadium build.
The report also leaves the Premier’s commitment of spending $375 million and ‘not a red cent more’ in tatters.
Translation not needed for statements of fact, rare though they be.
It is extremely telling that the Government tried to sneak this report out during a period when many Tasmanians are still on holidays.
Translation: We admire a clever ploy and we’re emulating it here in releasing our response before we’ve had enough time to really digest the review’s contents.
They owe it to Tasmanians to front up and answer the many questions it raises, and this morning I’ve written to Minister Abetz to request a briefing so we can get the full story.
Translation: Easy ask as we know he won’t accept. He doesn’t want to read it either.
Jeremy Rockliff staked his leadership on being able to deliver this project on time and budget but the more time that passes the more this is looking like the second coming of the ferries fiasco.
Translation: Don’t forget about the ferries and don’t you dare ask how we would bring in a third stadium on time and on budget because . . . jobs.
SHAME LABOR, SHAME!
Our Place is a Hobart-based community group with an alternative vision for infrastructure and activities at Macquarie Point.
