Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Deputy Speaker, I thank the members of the opposition for bringing on this Matter of Public Importance about infrastructure fails. We have heard a litany of examples and the Spirit is writ large, obviously, as an infrastructure fail, but I rise today to talk about the stadium as a monumental fail – in the making, nonetheless.
The stadium started with a dud deal in the first place. The AFL deal is a dud deal for Tasmanians. The stadium condition in the AFL deal currently presents the greatest risk to the Devils AFL and AFLW football teams. We Greens are very strong supporters of the football teams. We were tripartisan supporters of the football teams when the premier of the day was guaranteeing that it would not include a stadium, but history shows that a stadium was agreed to. It is a very hefty price.
Not only does the stadium not have planning approval and is not in line with the agreed master plan, not only was there no reference to Treasury, his own Cabinet or no engagement with community, a stadium is simply not something that the Premier can make a commitment to. I hear you say, Premier, that you will see this through, but this is a project that is yet to even be assessed and approved by a planning assessment and, at face value, this development completely contravenes the existing planning schemes, cultural values and reverential ambience of the Cenotaph is a case in point.
It is protected by the planning scheme. There are 15-metre height limits at Macquarie Point specifically to protect the sight lines from the Cenotaph. The sight lines are named in the Sullivans Cove Planning Scheme and yet those provisions are junked via the fast-track Project of State Significance process. They do not have to apply and the panel has absolute discretion as to whether or not it will consider those provisions.
The stadium is a fundamental fail because it puts Tasmanians on the hook for all blowouts. As my colleague, the member for Clark, just said, no-one believes that this stadium can be built for $715 million and I do not think anyone believes that the government can cap it at $300 million-plus either. We have seen reports from Canberra that a refurbishment of an existing stadium there is going to cost $1.2 billion. A brand-new stadium build is anywhere up to $3 billion. Nobody understands how your private-public partnership works and the simple fact that you, on the first day of the election, committed to so-called capping the public expenditure at $315 million was an admission in the first place that you do not believe it can be built for $700‑odd million either. That was just a simple attempt to try to diffuse the political heat that is in this issue. It hasn’t been diffused and it does continue.
There was a fundamental fail to negotiate GST exemption for the federal government’s $240 million. It was not until Labor asked a question in this House that your Treasurer even made a request. That request was reiterated the day before the election this year and that $240 million is not GST exempt. The federal government will claw it back and that will come at the expense of health, housing and other important spends here in the state. We note as well that the $240 million from the federal government was committed to ancillary commitments around Macquarie Point, things like housing developments and the wharf upgrade and we are still to get clear answers about exactly how the wharf upgrade will occur to accommodate the Antarctic Division’s vessel.
It is a fail in that upfront this commitment was made despite the fact that it would not consider any of the impacts. There are impacts on the heritage precinct, impacts on existing values that are protected and impacts on traffic and public transport. These are significant issues that the Premier simply cannot make a commitment to upfront. It is a fail because it fails to consider the opportunity cost. How ridiculous is it that this government has paid out an interstate developer not to develop at Macquarie Point, according to the previously agreed plan? Saul Eslake has made it very clear that we should be making an infrastructure envelope and then prioritise our spend under that. That is how the Greens support infrastructure projects to be funded, prioritised and decided upon.
Time expired.
