As Legislative Councillors prepare to debate the order approving the Macquarie Point stadium against the advice of independent experts, I was proud to table a petition signed by 6,387 Tasmanians calling on the Legislative Council to renegotiate the deal for our AFL/W teams.
It’s a clear call for Upper House members to reject the stadium.
I thank Janice Overett, the Principal Petitioner, and more than six thousand other Tasmanians who signed. Thousands of signatures were gained across the state at packed community meetings hosted by the Greens on the stadium.
This strongly supported petition is a clear expression from Tasmanians that MLCs should reject the stadium. It follows successive opinion polls which have shown the majority of Tasmanians oppose the stadium.
With the Order set to come to Parliament and Labor set to cave despite their protestations, Legislative Councillors will have a critically important decision to make on whether they will support or oppose the Macquarie Point Stadium. If they support it, they will do so despite knowing the Tasmanian Planning Commission says its costs outweigh its benefits, there are unresolved questions and it’s a bad fit for the site.
The Tasmanian Planning Commission recently recommended against building the stadium in part due to the $2 billion in debt it will create over a decade. This debt will need to be paid off by taxes or service cuts.
When Tasmanians are already struggling to access the essential health and housing services they need, we simply can’t afford any more cuts. Unlike essential services, this stadium is something that Tasmanians don’t want and don’t need.
The level of community anger over politicians playing deaf to independent experts and the majority of Tasmanians has not abated with the release of the Tasmanian Planning Commission Integrated Assessment Report. If anything, it’s grown.
I encourage Legislative Councillors to listen to the petitioners and majority of Tasmanians who are against this stadium because its unaffordable and unnecessary.
The petition calls on government to renegotiate the contract with the AFL so we keep the teams we’ve earned and deserve. A responsible government would do just that.
