Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about a matter of overwhelming interest to the Tasmanian community; the Liberal’s billion dollar plus stadium- sorry, apologies, that first line of my speech was now actually out of date, so I am just going to start again. Speaker, I rise tonight about a matter of overwhelming interest to the Tasmanian community, the Liberal and the Labor Party’s billion dollar plus stadium.
Dr Woodruff – That is right.
Ms BADGER – Since the stadium was proposed, deep concerns have been raised about the priority of spending over a billion dollars on a non-essential stadium. Since day one, it has been opposed by the Greens, by members of the crossbench and members of the Labor Party – sorry, I will just fix that again. Since day one, the stadium has been opposed by the Greens and members of the crossbench. Now, Labor did oppose it on day one until spectacularly backflipping just weeks after making a commitment to voters about their prior position.
Speaker, every Green MP in this place has consistently advocated against the unnecessary stadium and we have fully supported a Tasmanian AFL and AFLW team which our state should have had a very long time ago. Now, we have seen many independents consistently saying the same, and good on them. That opposition to the stadium has been vindicated. This week, the Tasmanian Planning Commission report showed that building the stadium would add nearly $2 billion to Tasmania’s debt and would add close to $100 million a year to the budget deficit.
Dr Woodruff – Shame.
Ms BADGER – Now, that is precious money that should be spent on essential things that people need like timely affordable health care. The TPC report outlined problem after insurmountable problem, basically every page had damning quotes and what was the Liberal’s response to this? Not only will they forge ahead with this project despite the overwhelming evidence that it is not in this state’s best long-term interests, they are also looking at speeding up the planning process, looking at taking a huge shortcut.
Rather than letting the current planning process take its course, the Liberals are seeking advice on bringing special legislation to parliament to approve the stadium directly. Speaker, if either of our two existing stadiums, you know, need the goal posts moved, then the Liberals have proven themselves absolute experts. Now, Tasmanians would reasonably expect the opposition to oppose the Liberal government taking a wrecking ball to proper process, but no.
No, such an expectation would be mistaken because today we heard from Labor that they will support the stadium no matter what. No matter what the cost or how much debt it will cause, no matter what the community thinks. Speaker, too many Tasmanians are struggling to pay their bills, to find a home, to access the health care that they need, but here we have both major political parties in lockstep supporting a non-essential stadium rather than focusing on improving people’s lives.
At this point, it is fair to say that the stadium has joint ownership if you will. It is the Labor-Liberal stadium, the Winter-Rock Stadium, perhaps we might call it and, you know, maybe one day we will see designs soon for the Jeremy Rockliff stand on one side and that Dean Winter stand, not opposite, but right beside the Mr Rockliff stand. Before I finish, Speaker, I have just got a little throwback for members. As I said, once upon a time, Labor did have a different position on the stadium and I have just got an old post from Mr Winter’s social media –
The SPEAKER – No, you can put it down, Ms Badger. Thank you. You can read from it but not wave it around.
Ms BADGER – The post says, honourable Speaker, Labor will focus on the priorities to make the health of Tasmanians better and it goes on, it shares a petition. The petition is called, wait for it, ‘We do not need another stadium’ and then the image says, ‘Labor Christmas, functional hospitals. Liberal Christmas, unnecessary stadium.’
Mr Winter makes that point extremely well, so credit where credit is due. Those were the good old days, were they not, when it felt like, just for a moment, that we had an opposition that was actually an opposition. The Tasmanians need a government that listens and they need an opposition that will hold the government to account when they are not listening.
Those of us who are on the crossbench are doing our job and we will continue to fight for the essential needs of Tasmanians every step of the way. Rest assured that the stadium will never be built.
