Ms ROSOL (Bass) – I rise to speak on the Matter of Public Importance topic of global economic shocks, and I begin by acknowledging that the global economic context is important. We might be a small island at the bottom of the world, but what happens in the world impacts us here. What we do in Tasmania is impacted by global events and policies and decisions. We cannot control those things, but there are things that we can control, and those things that we can control, we need to make sure that we are doing well.
There is no room for poor economic decision making in Tasmania and yet that is what we are looking at right now with the stadium. It is a terrible project that does not stack up economically. The Treasurer has just talked about being a safe pair of hands for the Tasmanian economy and yet we have multiple economist reports that say the stadium does not stack up economically.
I can tell you that my constituents in Bass are very worried about this stadium. They know it is bad economic news for them and they do not want it. That is why scrutiny is so important. All of us in this place have a responsibility to be evaluating the stadium and making sure that it is properly assessed and evaluated and yet we have a Labor opposition who are stepping back from their responsibility to scrutinise this critical economic investment that is proposed for our state. The Labor Party have shifted positions multiple times in relation to this stadium. First they were against it, and I know many people who have ‘no stadium’ stickers that they obtained from Labor offices. Then they moved to another position and the former leader of Labor, Rebecca White, said that they would renegotiate the deal on the stadium. They would renegotiate with the AFL. Again, still a position of ‘no stadium.’
Then they moved to a third position, which was one that the current leader of Labor, Mr Winter, has put forward, which was that they promised to scrutinise the stadium and to ensure that the cap on the investment by the Liberal government was not exceeded, but that the cap was stuck to. Yet now we have a fourth position that is being put forward by Labor. I am not talking about their position of unconditional support. I have an email here from Ms Haddad to a constituent that outlines quite a different position by Labor:
We have said that we need to consider other options. There are at least two other stadium proposals on the table because Macquarie Point just won’t work. Our support is not for Macquarie Point, it is for a stadium, given we want the teams. The government needs to remain open to the other proposals and work with Tasmanians on something that is deliverable and affordable.
We have here yet another position from Labor in which they recognise that the current proposal for Macquarie Point Stadium does not stack up and they want a different stadium, another stadium. Yet again we have another position from Labor. They are not doing their job of scrutiny. They are not doing their job of being in opposition. They know Macquarie Point will not work. They want a different stadium and they know that this is undeliverable and unaffordable. The Macquarie Point Stadium will not work for Tasmania.
We do have another stadium that is already available, that is already funded – the upgrades are already funded and it makes great economic sense. That is the York Park Stadium in Launceston. It is known to be a beautiful playing surface. It is already funded. The upgrades to the tune of $130 million are already funded. They are not going to take our state further into debt because the money is already there.
I would like to finish today by reminding all of us in this place that we already have that suitable stadium for AFL in Tasmania already funded, it will not take us further into debt. We cannot afford to go further into debt. We want a team in Tasmania playing at York Park because that will be good for the state. When the world is facing enormous global economic uncertainty we need to make sure that we are making wise decisions.
