The skyrocketing cost for the new Wesley Vale racetrack is not only a shocking waste of taxpayer funds on a cruel industry, but casts further doubt over the proposed Hobart stadium to be built on budget.
This racecourse has quickly gone from being an $18 million project to nearly $40 million. This amounts to a huge public subsidy for an industry that is responsible for frequent and systemic harm to animals, and comes on top of the tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds spent on racing each and every year.
Rather than propping up a cruel industry, we should be spending these many millions on the crucial needs of Tasmanians – housing, health, public transport, and addressing the cost of living. But seeing a project like this more than double in cost also raises much wider questions, especially for the Liberals’ unnecessary Hobart stadium.
This racetrack is latest in a long list of cost blowouts for construction we’ve seen in recent times. With sports precincts, hospitals, aquatic centres, and many other projects seeing massive budget overspends, how can the Liberals keep saying they can build a roofed stadium at Macquarie Point for $715 million?
Given Jeremy Rockliff has signed the Tasmanian people up to pay for every dollar of budget overrun on the stadium, it is crucial the public has a proper explanation of what this is going to cost. If the stadium cost blows out at the same rate as the Wesley Vale racetrack – a much simpler build – it will end up costing over $1.5 billion, with Tasmanian taxpayers directly fronting up over a billion dollars.
The Liberals’ Hobart stadium could come before Parliament as early as next week, and still there is no transparency on what it will really cost.
The Premier’s back of a napkin guesstimate for the stadium cost isn’t good enough. We need to see a current, detailed, and independent cost breakdown before the Parliament votes on whether this is a Project of State Significance.
