Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about the Macquarie Point Stadium. It is a pity that the debate over the stadium at Macquarie Point has become the most divisive issue in Tasmania today. The harassment of members of the Legislative Council and the smearing of any and all experts who point out the multiple flaws in the project certainly shows part of that division.
There is the threat that without this specific stadium, in this specific place, right here and right now, Tasmania will lose the team that we have waited for so long for – and all this during a cost‑of‑living crisis at a time of global uncertainty. How did we get here?
The Greens do not object in principle to government spending money on projects that do not necessarily return a financial benefit, just as we do not when there are improvements to social and environmental outcomes, but this is far from it.
As the government has rightly said, if a cost‑benefit analysis was the only rubric by which we made decisions, we would not build any hospitals and we would not be investing in schools or roads. There are intangible benefits to elite sport that go beyond the extra dollars spent in nearby restaurants or increased participation in programs like Auskick. On the other hand, the costs are not just those we see on the balance sheet.
What is the cost of abandoning the truth and reconciliation park proposed for Macquarie Point, breaking any goodwill and trust that was had with the Palawa community? What is the cost of taking a wrecking ball to the planning system, as we have witnessed when a decision does not look like it is going your way?
When we balance the unarguable negative impacts of the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium against nebulous future positives, there can only be one conclusion. It does not stack up. It is not worth the risk of saddling future generations of Tasmanians with the enormous bill for this folly. This is the result of a classic boys club carve up. This terrible deal that implies that a sporting juggernaut, the AFL suits from Melbourne, is a more powerful negotiator than our state government.
This proposal was often wrongly compared with stadiums in other capital cities. Macquarie Point is not the Docklands. Adelaide Oval is in the city centre where there has been a growing population for over 150 years. Western Sydney has a population of 2.5 million.
Professor Philip Thales, former City of Sydney councillor and 2024 Australian Institute of Architects gold medallist, has suggested we could be looking at the most expensive stadium in the world in terms of cost per seat per capita.
The TPC interim report laid bare a number of insurmountable flaws with the stadium plan. These will certainly not be satisfactorily addressed by enabling legislation. The flaws are fundamental; they are built in.
Even if we could afford it, even if we wanted it, the stadium looming over the Hobart waterfront and its beautiful heritage is utterly incongruent with what makes this place special. It does Team Tasmania a disservice. We urgently need more housing. We urgently need more investment in health, education and public transport. I am glad the Treasurer is here to hear this in the budget week.
Governing involves making choices about what projects take priority. We must move on from this fever dream. The Devil’s AFL licence is for 12 years. A pragmatic approach spelled out recently in Tasmanian Times would see the team play primarily at Bellerive and York Park for their formative years. Once the team is established, it will be clear whether a new stadium is really required for them to take the next steps. If it is, this must happen in a consultative way that engages the whole community instead of secret deals behind doors on our behalf.
The first thing that needs to happen is that we must come to our collective senses and abandon the Macquarie Point Stadium before it is too late.
The House adjourned at 8.31 p.m.
