Helen Burnet MP – Member for Clark
In an embarrassing development, the Rockliff Government has once again been schooled by the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC) on its application to build a stadium.
The government had been trying to exclude essential pieces of enabling infrastructure from the stadium’s assessment. But they’ve been left with egg on their face, with the Commission saying the access road, pedestrian bridge, and bus facilities are all requirements for the project and must be added to the Project of State Significance application.
Then there’s the Goods Shed, which has to be moved for the stadium to be built, but had inexplicably been left out of the project application too. The TPC says this will need to be corrected, with the relocation to form part of their assessment.
It’s remarkable that information for so many key parts of the stadium project have still not been provided to the Planning Commission. Is it incompetence or is the government trying to game the system?
Cassy O’Connor MLC – Member for Hobart
If the Liberals thought they could pull a swiftie and not provide basic information about the stadium project to the Planning Commission, they can think again. Clearly the TPC is set on making sure they play ball.
It beggars belief that the government lacks the expertise to submit relevant information to the Tasmanian Planning Commission – especially given the enormous funding allocated to the stadium project. It’s also utterly unreasonable for the government to expect the TPC to assess their stadium application without this essential information.
The Rockliff Government are displaying a laughably cart-before-horse approach to the proposed Mac Point stadium. Their pig-headed arrogance is putting our hard-earned teams at risk.
They need to listen to Nicholas Gruen, heed their own AFL Taskforce report and go back to the drawing board before they inevitably fail football-loving Tasmanians.
