The Tasmanian Premier appears set to to ditch the Project of State Significance process that is currently assessing the controversial Hobart stadium project. The move is in response to multiple major problems with the project, including the likelihood of a budget blowout both for the project itself and required ancillary infrastructure, in the Tasmanian Planning Commission’s Integrated Assessment Report.

The Labor Party is backing the ‘stadium at any cost’ position. 

We reproduce below the statements received over the last two days, in order.

Media release – Kristie Johnston, independent MHA for Clark, 2 April 2025

Premier takes sledgehammer to proper planning

The Premier has had to come clean under my questioning in Parliament today about his intention to build the stadium by hook or by crook.

He has been forced to admit that he has sought advice on an alternative if the POSS process and the TPC conclusion all get too hard.

The Premier has several independent reports which raise significant and potentially terminal issues with his planned stadium.

And now he is staring down the barrel of an outright rejection of the stadium by the TPC.

Rather than recognise the facts of the matter and accept reality he is now seeking advice on how to circumvent proper planning processes and ram through the parliament this disastrous project.

Not content with plunging Tasmania into financial turmoil he now seeks to take a sledgehammer to proper planning processes.

Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 2 April 2025

Premier Admits Special Stadium Legislation Is On The Cards

After two days of grilling by the Greens and others in Parliament, the Premier has finally admitted he is looking at fast-tracking the stadium by using special legislation to directly approve the project.

This truly is Jeremy Rockliff’s Pulp Mill moment. The only way he could be more like former-Premier Paul Lennon right now is by growing a moustache.

The parallels with the Pulp Mill are truly remarkable. That project was highly controversial, and was put to a Projects of State Significance process to give it a leg up. But the project was so ill-advised even the weak POSS process identified major insurmountable problems. We’re seeing exactly the same thing happen with the stadium.

The only real difference between the Pulp Mill and the stadium is that Jeremy Rockliff appears prepared to go even further than Paul Lennon to get his vanity project built. Paul Lennon cooked up a special law with a corrupted assessment process for the Pulp Mill. It looks now like Jeremy Rockliff wants to legislate a direct approval for the stadium. It’s scandalous.

The fact Jeremy Rockliff is considering special rubber-stamp legislation is a stunning admission from him that the stadium can’t withstand the scrutiny of the community. He obviously wants to avoid the next steps, of public submissions, public hearings, and the final recommendation from the Planning Commission. Even if he won’t say it out loud, he clearly understands the stadium has so many insurmountable problems the Commission will have no choice but to recommend rejection.

With the Liberals now confirming they are considering direct approval legislation, Labor need to make their position clear. Dean Winter promised Tasmanians he would fully scrutinise the stadium, which must include the views of Tasmanians and experts on the TPC’s assessment report. Subverting the planning process at this point would be a broken promise.

Craig Garland, independent MHA for Braddon, 2 April 2024

YES to York Park, NO to reckless development

This reckless Labor-backed, Liberal minority ‘government’ will abandon all principle at the footstool of their corporate masters just to build the AFL stadium.

The Premier’s dead horse stadium keeps getting flogged despite all evidence to the contrary that this is a good idea.

Monday’s interim assessment by the Tasmanian Planning Commission highlighted a range of concerns regarding the proposed Macquarie Point AFL Stadium in Hobart.

These planning details are important considerations, showing why it isn’t likely to meet the planning standards we have in Tasmania.

If built, the costs will burden the state and the impacts of the stadium on Hobart infrastructure and the community.

The biggest impacts are to the northern half of the state, which isn’t an assessment that the Planning Commission is likely to undertake, such as equality of access, affordability of northern Tasmanians to travel to southern games, and the impact of disrupting AFL culture in the north by shifting the Tasmanian AFL home to the south.

AFL teams and fans already have a perfectly good stadium in Launceston, specifically York Park (UTAS Stadium), which the Government has already committed $130 million towards its re-development. It hosts the Hawthorn Hawks, and its more than capable of hosting the Tasmania Devils.

Tasmanians are content to maintain and upgrade existing facilities like York Park and Bellerive Oval, rather than chasing an unnecessary and costly project. Every survey to date has shown that northern Tasmanians are firmly against a new southern based stadium.

My view is that most AFL games should be in the north where the heart of Tassie footy lies, which avoids the need for a new stadium in Hobart, using Launceston and surrounds as the base for both the AFL and AFLW teams.

Today in Parliament Question Time, Greens members and Independent Member for Clark, Kristie Johnston, pushed the Premier to reveal that he is now seeking advice about other options to get the Stadium approved.

If the Government chooses to attempt to fast track this project as a special development to avoid the proper planning scrutiny, like Gunns and Labor tried to do over a decade ago with Gunns’ proposed Tamar Valley Pulp Mill, it attacks the integrity of the very planning institutions and processes it has created.

The longer the government goes down this bulldozing path to a disastrous stadium it can’t deliver, the further it diminishes any prospect of renegotiating an agreement with the AFL to make sure we can have our team in a stadium of our choice.

The Premier and his Government must ditch the new proposed stadium, keep York Park to the highest AFL competition standard, investing in grassroots footy and community sports of all codes, not just one sport at the expense of the rest.

Today, I call on Tasmania to say: Yes York Park!

I call on Premier Rockliff to abandon this project and renegotiate York Park to become the headquarters for the Tasmania Devils AFL teams.

Media release – independent MHAs Rebekah Pentland and Miriam Beswick, 3 April 2025

STADIUM MUST FACE SCRUTINY

Northern independents Rebekah Pentland and Miriam Beswick joined other crossbench MPs this morning to voice their disappointment in Labor’s latest position on the Macquarie Point Stadium.

“It’s Labor’s right to support a stadium but writing the Government a blank cheque is a step too far,” Mrs Beswick said.

“It’s an opposition’s job to scrutinise government decisions, especially when it comes to a critical project like Macquarie Point.

“Labor’s gone from handing out ‘No Stadium’ stickers to backing the project at any cost.”

Bass Independent Rebekah Pentland said the stadium must be thoroughly assessed.

“We need to make the best possible decisions for our state, not just for the AFL.

“The Planning Commission highlighted issues associated with the stadium that we can’t afford to ignore.

“Walking away from that process now would be seen as an abandonment of proper scrutiny.”

Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 3 April 2025

Jeremy Rockliff: Mr 10%

In a completely bizarre display Jeremy Rockliff continues to compare himself to disgraced ex-premier, Paul Lennon whose popularity hit record lows of 17% under perceptions of corruption while subverting democratic process to ram through pulp mill legislation.

But Mr Rockliff is happy to go lower, down to10% in fact.

In the spirit of Paul Lennon, no matter what the community thinks, no matter how much the stadium costs, no matter what expert advice exists, the Premier plans to subvert democracy to build his stadium – and Labor are lazily backing him in.

The Liberal-Labor coalition has lost the plot and are prepared to let Tasmanians pay any price for a stadium we don’t need that most people don’t want.

This is the Pulp Mill playbook indeed. It’s dodgy, it’s stinking, it’s all about sidelining Tasmanians.

But Tasmanians will not be sidelined, or silenced.

The foolhardy trajectory the Liberal-Labor coalition has us on will bankrupt the state, damage our credit rating, and desecrate the most beautiful capital city in the world.

Under Greens’ questioning the Premier also refused to rule out cuts and hiring freezes in the public service, once again putting Tasmanians last and the AFL first.

Labor might be comfortable with selling out every principle they have to back the Liberals, but the Greens are going to fight this every step of the way, and judging by the community sentiment Tasmanians will be by our side.

Media release – Anita Dow MP, Deputy Leader, 3 April 2025

Crossbench hypocrisy reaches new levels

Today’s pre-parliament stadium stunt from the coalition of the unwilling smacks of hypocrisy and desperation.

Three of the members have confidence and supply agreements with the Government. Ringleader Kristie Johnston famously traded off her support of the Liberals for a carpark.

The best way they could make a stand against Jeremy Rockliff’s stadium would be to stop propping up his government, but instead they have chosen to throw stones via the media.

Labor has been clear. We support Tasmania’s AFL teams. We support a stadium. We want to see it built and for that to happen it needs to pass through parliament.

Since the election, Tasmanian Labor uncovered the biggest infrastructure stuff up in Tasmanian history, the ferries fiasco. An extraordinary debacle which will cost Tasmanian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. It resulted in the forced resignation in the Deputy Premier of Tasmania. The Independents refused to even support an inquiry into it.

We have relentlessly pursued the budget crisis and only yesterday, successfully destroyed the Premier’s privatisation plan, with a successful motion through the House.

We will continue to hold the Government to account for its delivery of the Premier’s stadium, because we want it done properly, not stopped.

And no amount of hypocritical posturing from the coalition of the unwilling will change that.

Media release – independent MLC for Nelson Meg Webb, 3 April 2025

Premier Must Resolve Stadium Process Uncertainty for Community

Independent Member for Nelson Meg Webb today called on the Premier to either commit to allowing the current Project of State Significance assessment of the Macquarie Point AFL Stadium to proceed to its scheduled conclusion or provide a clear date announcing his intention to abandon that process.

“Premier Rockliff should immediately inform Tasmanians when they will hear whether or not the controversial stadium project will be pulled from the current independent assessment underway,” Ms Webb said.

“The Tasmanian Planning Commission’s damning Draft Integrated Assessment report is currently available for public feedback with submissions due by May 8.

“Many Tasmanians intending to engage in that feedback and submission processes in good faith, must now be wondering whether it is worth making that effort if the Premier announces he is storming out of the process.”

Ms Webb said the TPC Panel is trying to work in good faith, members of the community are trying to participate in democratic consultation processes in good faith.

“Yet rather than demonstrate leadership both the Liberal Government and Labor Party are acting in bad faith.

“Let’s be clear: the Premier’s admission he is considering abandoning the current PoSS process is confirmation his ill-advised white elephant stadium project has failed its first test.

“In a sulk, the Premier is now considering taking his ball and leaving the field. It is the AFL bigwigs who should be benched, not Tasmania’s independent planning umpire.”

Ms Webb said with both Liberal and Labor cowering before the bullying tactics of the AFL and abrogating their responsibilities to the Tasmanian electorate, the state now faces 18 interstate AFL club bosses forcing their views upon the state.

“It is unacceptable and extraordinarily disrespectful for the AFL to seek to blackmail and exploit Tasmanians’ deep-rooted wish for our own AFL team.

“It is outrageous that both the Tasmanian Liberal Government and so-called Labor Opposition are capitulating to such blatant blackmail efforts instead of standing up for all Tasmanians, for good governance and evidence-based decision making.”

Media release – Vica Bayley MP, Greens Treasury spokesperson, 3 April 2025

Stadium ‘Advice’ Nothing More than PR Exercise

The government’s new ‘legal advice’ on the stadium is nothing more than a paid PR exercise seeking to discredit the government’s own assessment panel and the damning report it released on Monday. This has been commissioned to muddy the waters and to help the Premier justify bypassing the Tasmanian Planning Commission and bring special approval legislation for the stadium.

Jeremy Rockliff’s efforts to throw shade on the Planning Commission’s damning report have been laughable. This report has been compiled by a panel of six experts, including a former Assistant Solicitor-General and a former head of the Treasury Department. These are people the government trusted with the most serious questions of law and finance, but who are now being conveniently dismissed.

This panel of experts spent well over a year considering matters related to the stadium and developing a highly detailed report. But it’s taken just a couple of days for the government pay for a superficial response from a multinational law firm.

What’s been produced by the government isn’t serious legal advice. It’s a cooked-up pretence to justify a decision the Premier seems to have already made to pursue fast-track approval legislation for the stadium.

There’s a couple of highly questionable points of legal contention in this letter, but most of it sounds like it’s come from a Liberal party media release, or from one of Jeremy Rockliff’s Parliamentary rants about the stadium.

It’s ironic the government has paid these lawyers to criticise the Planning Commission for making unsubstantiated arguments, only for them to produce advice that itself that is completely unsubstantiated.

Jeremy Rockliff needs to stop kidding himself. The stadium is a turd that simply can’t be polished. There is no justification for by passing the Planning Commission, denying the community a say and fast-tracking special legislation to approve a stadium Tasmanians don’t want, don’t need and can’t afford.

Media release – Dean Winter MP, The Leader of the Opposition, 3 April 2025

Greens show their true colours again

This morning’s childish stunt from the Greens has reminded Tasmania exactly why the Greens are not a serious party, and Rosalie Woodruff is not a serious leader.

Their latest attempt to blow up Parliament with petty stunts and senseless theatrics is an insult to the people we represent and a complete waste of the Parliament’s time.

And it is exactly why under my leadership, we will never, ever do a deal with the Greens.

They’re anti housing, anti-renewables, anti-development and anti-Tasmanian AFL team. Now they’ve made plain they think their job isn’t to scrutinise this 11-year-old government, but to spend all their time worrying about Labor.

The Greens are not a serious party.

I reaffirm Labor’s commitment today that we will never, ever do a deal with the Greens, and they will never help form a Labor Government in Tasmania.

Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 3 April 2025

Winter’s Shocking Stadium Call Demands Accountability

The Greens will never apologise for holding Liberal and Labor politicians accountable for their decisions.

What we have seen from Dean Winter and the Labor party in the last 24 hours is nothing short of extraordinary – in the worst possible way.

When Mr Winter announced his support for the stadium, after the 2024 election, he told Tasmanians it was conditional. He said the government’s price cap on taxpayer funding had to be met, and that he would make sure the government managed the project properly.

Now Labor have made the shocking decision to walk away from that commitment and support the stadium no matter what.

The Greens are dead serious about holding Jeremy Rockliff and the Liberals accountable for the stadium. In fact, that’s exactly why we are so outraged to see Dean Winter abandon Labor’s duty as the Opposition party and offer Labor’s unconditional support for the government’s project.

Mr Winter is running a protection racket for the Liberals, giving them a shield to do anything they like, no matter how bad.

Dean Winter is obviously upset the crossbench have called him out, but if he wants someone to blame for the bruise to his ego, he should look in a mirror. As Opposition Leader he’s taken the extraordinary step of unconditionally supporting the government as they plan to cut out the community’s voice and pursue one of the biggest taxpayer-funded projects in Tasmanian history.