Transcript of media conference with Brent ‘Tiger’ Crosswell, ex-VFL footballer; Kristie Johnston, MHA for Clark; and Peter George, independent candidate for Franklin, Parliament Lawns, Hobart, 14 July 2025.
Topics covered: AFL team, Macquarie Point stadium, Tasmanian Planning Commission, York Park, heritage, Cenotaph, architecture.
Brent Crosswell
I’m Brent Crosswell, a mere footballer. I’m pleased to be here with Peter and Kristie, independents, one for Franklin and one for Clark, really given the opportunity to voice my opposition to this absurd idea of a stadium in Macquarie Point.
It’s just horrible. I’m against it, and I really need to explain something about it, because being an ex football player, you know, I’m going to get a lot of criticism from my mates and I guess other people in Tasmania and even Victoria.
I am for a team here as you would expect, and I’m for a site where that team can play, as you’d expect. But I’m not for an absurd site, which Macquarie Point is, it’s a dreadful site.
My mates say to me, you know, ‘Tiger, you’re anti football’.
I’m not anti football at all. I don’t like the idea that this great big concrete, steel, wooden monolith stuck will be right there in this beautiful area.
A prominent person said to me it’s an aesthetic abomination. Another thought it was civic vandalism. And of course, it is. It is that.
And a lot of my mates think, I asked them, they think they’ve got to vote for the stadium because they won’t get the team. Well, that’s actually nonsense. They can vote against the stadium, which I think they should, and get a team,
Yeah, but they have to fight for it. It might take a few years. Stand up to the to the AFL, who have issued, by the way, a diktat, a command, a set of ultimatums to the Tasmanian people who have had no say in it, no consultation, no consultation at all, and they’ve got to suck it up.
They’re going to act like, you know, basset hounds, kow-towing to the VFL (AFL), this profit-bloated footy corporation who have dictated terms to us, you know, and we’ve got to accept it.
We’ve got to accept it at the cost of this aesthetic abomination here and other things as well. That’s the line that I take, and I’m very sensitive to the beauty of this place and and the charm of this place.
Even here, this is absolutely unique. I mean, Hobart is one of the finest cities in the world, it has to be. And I don’t like people chipping away at the edge of the aesthetic, a unique aesthetic, beautiful colonial Georgian buildings here. Bit by bit, they destroy what is unique.
Why would I come up here – all my mates are going to be annoyed, and the football community, clearly, they’ll think I’ll be a traitor, you know, because, after all, football is this great national game. ‘And you can’t oppose that’, ‘You don’t want footy Tiger’, this kind of stuff.
But the thing is, when they vote, when they vote for this stadium, when they do that, they’re actually voting against the interests of Hobart and Tasmania. They’re voting against our interests.
They don’t quite realise that, because, hey, these guys want a footy team; they couldn’t care less about … you could put a toilet up there if the AFL said so to get their footy team.
So they need to realise, I think – I don’t want to be preachy, it’s not my style – but they need to realise the cost to Hobart of voting for this dreadful thing, which Kristy and Peter, you know, they’re with me on this, and I’m very happy to be here to say this. I think we’ve got to stand up.
This is my view: stand up against the AFL bullying us. You know, they’ve already signed up 200,000 people. It’s not as if we’ve got no power in this. We have got options, by the way. We’ve actually got options that we can use, and could be saying we should take the options, but we’re not.
We’re going, going and presenting and sitting down like, you know, basset hounds, sitting there like that. It’s not that we need. We can go in and argue and fight for what we want. That’s what we need to do. I think we need to do that.
Now, there’s been set up – and some people realise this – that there’s been set up a Planning Commission (assessment) only recently, and it’s come out on a number of points. It’s looked at this site, this gross site, at Macquarie Point.
On every point, they’ve condemned it: cost, location, transport, heritage. Condemned it without, without one of those points that they’re focused on, areas of interest, not one point, not one point have they said, ‘Oh, this is a good idea there’. No, right across the board, unanimous.
This is a very, very bad idea. And that’s what I base a lot of my objection to. It’s not some guy walking down the street I meet at the pub or something. Not that at all. This is the Planning Commission, ignored by the Premier. He doesn’t want to know about it. They want to tell the Tasmanian people that.
All my mates, you know, they ‘Tiger blah blah blah’, they don’t know about it. They want their footy team. And you don’t blame them. They’ve wanted – these guys are often baby boomers like myself, dreamt for years about, you know, having their footy team. They’ll sacrifice anything. They’ll sacrifice the beauty of this, I’m serious, the beauty of this exquisite area for their footy team.
Let me just just add one more thing that – sorry I’m taking up too much of your time – that the Planning Commission talks about, it’s one of their first things, the location.
The stadium is huge, it’s not meant for that area there. And because it’s huge, too big, it’s like something just dropped from the moon. There’s nothing beautiful about a stadium.
You might have not thought about this, but it’s actually in part going to stop people coming in. So most of that huge area down there you’re not going to get to, you can’t go to, it’s out of bounds. The stadium’s massively high, you know, you’re going to have great shadows there in and we as Tasmanians, we know what it’s like.
Did you ever try to walk around a football stadium? Dark, dank, the last thing you’d want to do. And so that area, because of the stadium, it’s a great big wall.
And if you were in America, you might think, oh, ‘it’s a Trumpian prison here. There might be a few, you know, immigrants in there’. Poor image. You might think that in another place, another context.
It’s dreadful. It really is. And this location, it’s crammed up there against the against the Cenotaph area, a beautiful area of Hobart, an open space you know, grassy, glorious, open space.
What’s going to happen is that this great, big, looming bowl of concrete, wood, steel, whatever they use to make a statement, it’ll be up the back. It defaces that gorgeous view that Hobart people love; it’s what makes Hobart an enormously lovely place.
At the other side of the stadium, it banks up against the the wharf and Sullivan’s Cove. I mean, it’s just ridiculous to think that we’re actually here at this point after the report. Mind you, we’re here because Rockliff has kept it all quiet. You know, he’s not eager, he didn’t want to talk about it. He wants to kow-tow. I’m familiar with sporting organisations that, you know, stand tall over you.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
I was just hoping to ask a couple of you guys, if possible, would either of you be willing to sign a supply of confidence agreement with either party after this election, if they continue to support the stadium?
Kristie Johnston
I might be surprised.
I won’t be signing a supply and confidence agreement because I don’t do deals. I don’t do deals on issues that are important to Tasmanians. So I’m not prepared to trade off my vote for important issues. Every issue I’ve been campaigning about is a solid commitment to Tasmanians and [inaudible] I’ve given so I won’t be doing deals.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
You essentially provided confidence in the last parliament, even though it wasn’t a binding deal on every vote you did allow the Rockliff government to govern. Would you be willing to do that again, if the stadium, if the if the stadium is still staying alive?
Kristie Johnston
Just to clarify, I didn’t provide confidence at the last election. What I did was indicate to all members of the House, all leaders of the House, how I would approach each decision, and I did so on each issue. I decided on its merits. I didn’t provide confidence.
I will vote on a stadium on its merits, and there are no merits to a stadium. I will vote on a budget on its merits. There was no merit to the budget that was previously tabled in parliament.
I will vote on merits around salmon, I will vote on merits around poker machines. I will do that for each and every issue because Tasmanians deserve representatives in Parliament who do what they say they will do.
Journalist – unidentified
The AFL has been very clear, no no stadium, no team. What makes you think that Tasmanian can get a team without a stadium at Macquarie Point?
Kristie Johnston
The AFL has been absolutely bullying Tasmanians and the Tasmanian Government. We’re here today with Tiger Crosswell, who is an iconic Tasmanian football, a Hall of Famee. Many Tasmanians will remember his success on the field. He knows football better than most people. He’s a football lover, and he absolutely agrees that the AFL have been bullying Tasmanians, and that what we need are parliamentarians who are prepared to stand up to the AFL and renegotiate the deal.
Of course, we want football. You can love football but not want to stadium. You can love football and go and renegotiate with the AFL and say it’s time that we have our our team. Stop bullying us. Stop telling Tasmanian how to run their government and run their state, and have people who stand up for Tasmanians and stand up for football in the state.
Journalist – unidentified
Andrew Dillon has been very clear, he’s said on multiple times that Macquarie Point is the site of choice, and they’re not going to budge on it. Do you still think there can be a negotiation?
Kristie Johnston
Of course there can be negotiation. There’s always negotiations in any kind of contract. The AFL has been absolutely bullying Tasmanians. We’ve already seen a number of deadlines pass. A planning deadline from the 30 June has passed only only weeks ago, and yet they’ve been willing to move on that particular issue.
Of course, there is room to renegotiate. Tasmanians cannot afford the stadium. They don’t want the stadium. It’s in the wrong place. And Parliament needs to stand up for Tasmanian and not do the bidding for AFL which, at the end of the day, is a massive corporation with self interest and wants to do the best thing for its own shareholders.
Journalist – unidentified
Your sign’s been spotted moving yesterday by a truck. Can you just give us an update on where that’s at?
Peter George
Yes, we’ve let our volunteers know that State Growth has got a determination that we can’t have our signs on trailers at the side of the road, in certain places on the side of the road, and some of those have been moved.
Tasmanian Times
Just a question on the stadium, what’s actually the screaming hurry? I mean, if Tasmania doesn’t enter the league in 2028 would the world end? Why should Tasmanians be beholden to this kind of schedule?
Peter George
We’re in this ludicrous position because of the arrogance of the AFL and the stupidity of the Tasmanian Government. The AFL has made the stadium our problem, Tasmania’s problem. We have the ability, we have the common sense, to be able to turn that round. We’re going to make this the AFL’s problem. The AFL will end up having to renegotiate.
We won’t accept this stadium. People don’t want the stadium. It’s too expensive, it’s unnecessary, it’s unwanted.
And there is no way the AFL having gone this far down the track is going to be able to deny the Tasmanian people the result that they want, which is no stadium. Play on that wonderful oval at York Park and have two teams, one for women, one for men?
Journalist – unidentified
if both of you are on the cross bench next week, what are the first moves that you make against either the Liberals or the Labor to oppose the stadium?
Peter George
Let’s wait and see if I’m elected in the first place. I don’t know that I’ll be elected. The polls may be looking positive. My approach will be to go and immediately talk to, I mean, I’m happy to talk to both Labor and Liberals, point out our position, point out the position right across the cross bench, and make sure that a government, whatever that government is, immediately goes to the AFL and renegotiates.
Journalist – unidentified
You two are standing together today. Will you be standing together in Parliament if you vote for elected next week on this issue?
Peter George
I can’t speak for Kristie. We haven’t actually negotiated at all. We have discussed our futures. I’m not in Parliament yet. I hope that I will be. My view is that I will work with…I’ll certainly be very happy to work side by side with Kristie. And I know that her views on the stadium are identical to mine, but I can’t speak for her. I would be, I’d be honoured to work beside her and other members of the cross-bench
Journalist – unidentified
What does it mean to have the support of someone with the great status in the Tasmanian football community in supporting your cause, Kristie’s cause in opposing the stadium?
Peter George
It’s an honour to stand by someone like Tiger, one of the greatest Aussie rules football players in our history. He’s he’s in the Tassie Hall of Fame. He won four grand finals. And it’s great to be able to stand next to a footballer who can see what a stupid idea it is to try and build a stadium at Mac Point where there’s no room for it. It doesn’t belong there, and we can’t afford it.
And I must say that Tiger has made it very clear to me, York Park is one of the best, if not the best, playing services for AFL in the country, not just in Tasmania. So let’s do that. This government is spending at least $130 million upgrading York Park. Why would you put that much money into York Park when you’re going to pour billions into Mac Point?
Journalist – unidentified
Will you be sort of be having a united front when, if, if you both are in Parliament next week?,
Kristie Johnston
Certainly, I think it’s the issue of the stadium is concerning to a number of Tasmanians. And if I’m lucky enough to be elected on Saturday the 19th of July, then I will stand with any parliamentarian who stands up for Tasmanians and fights against this stadium, whether that’s members of my cross-bench or whether indeed it’s a a major party who has a change of heart and decides that Tasmanians should be put first, not the AFL.
It is really important that parliamentarians stand up for Tasmanians and put the community interest first. That’s what people like independents like myself, Peter George and others can do. The parties are beholden to big corporations, and there’s no bigger corporation at the moment than the AFL in town.
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