Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens)(by leave) – Honourable speaker, I move –
That so much of Standing Orders be suspended as would prevent such a motion from being dealt with forthwith.
We took this matter very seriously. A number of people have made comments about why we would be focusing on the Leader of the Opposition in this censure motion. It is a high bar. We are here to hold the government to account, but we expect, and Tasmanians expect, that the opposition and the crossbench will be united in our duty to hold the government to account.
What we are seeing happening today, yesterday and going forward, is that the Labor opposition leader, Mr Dean Winter, has abrogated his responsibility, duty and promise to Tasmanians to scrutinise the government on the biggest infrastructure project in Tasmania. It dwarfs the Bridgewater bridge; it dwarfs the Spirit of Tasmania that had Labor asking question after question last year.
What we are looking at is a massive infrastructure project with capital core stadium costs estimated by the Planning Commission at $653 million. The capital cost of the stadium‑related infrastructure would be $774 million. The capital cost including stadium‑related infrastructure, precinct infrastructure and the preliminary work is $959 million, just shy of a billion. That is not the debt that we will accrue in 10 years’ time. We will be at $1.86 million – minimum.
What we have now is a Labor opposition who have promised time and again that they will, first of all, not support the stadium, and Mr Winter was on record in January 2023 saying:
Labor will focus on the priorities that are going to make the health of Tasmanians better, not an unnecessary stadium.
He then said:
Labor’s support for a stadium does not mean the Premier will be let off the hook for the promises he has made, far from it. He needs to deliver his capped spend of $375 million with private investors.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER – Members on my left will cease interjecting and the member will address the urgency of the motion.
Dr WOODRUFF – What we know from the Planning Commission is that there will not be any capped spend of $375 million. It is a fiction; it always was. What we are facing now is a Labor opposition leader who has made a promise that he will walk away from scrutinising the government and worse, do anything that is required, including, we assume from what he said and what other members of his party have said, supporting fast track enabling legislation that will cut out the community’s voice.
It is absolutely shameful action by a member of parliament, the Leader of the Opposition. It is a protection racket that he is offering the Liberals. The Liberal and Labor parties together are preventing scrutiny of the biggest infrastructure project in Tasmania’s history.
It is not just about asking questions, it is about the fact that Mr Winter is now providing a shield for the Liberal Party to go ahead and do anything they want on Macquarie Point at any cost, at any ruin to Tasmanians, now and into the future, for decades to come. Any impact on the community, any impact on transport, any impact on the Cenotaph and the RSL, any impact on Aboriginal heritage – all gone. Worse, what he is proposing to do is to fast‑track a planning process that will mean that he and other members will be forced to sit here and make a decision that is not at the end of the Tasmanian Planning Commission’s process.
He is talking about subverting that process utterly and pulling it out of the planning process, pulling it out of the conversations that Tasmania are about to have – the submissions they are writing right now, that hearings the Planning Commission will hold to hear their voices and the response to the stadium. The planning process has not finished. To pull out of it at this point would be an utter betrayal of Tasmanians’ proper planning – an utter betrayal of everything that he and his party members have promised Tasmanians.
He does not give a fig about the cost. It is him in lockstep with the Premier supporting the stadium and it is an utter abrogation of his role as leader.
Time expired.
