Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I really welcome this motion from the Independent member for Franklin, Mr George. I might go back to what Mr George spoke about when he introduced his motion. He spoke about this being the worst deal in history for Tasmania and that may be true, because we know that the AFL have got a gift, really. They have the Tasmanian government and backers falling into line in relation to this stadium deal. The Greens, Mr George, and various other people have pointed out that this is a dud deal for Tasmania and we can’t get away from that.
Not only is it a dud deal for Tasmania, but there are a number of other imposts on Tasmania’s economy which the government should be really concerned about. Thanks to Labor and their dogged pursuit of the ferries, we know that there has been, in their words, ‘a major stuff-up’ in relation to the ferries and the delivery of that project, the blowout in costs. We heard in the Public Accounts Committee last week that there are even further blowouts in costs, and there will be pressure on the government’s Budget and borrowings. If you add up all of these things, including the huge Marinus project as well, the rollout of Marinus, the costs will be significant to the state of Tasmania as well.
It’s not that we’re looking at something in isolation, we’re looking at a cumulative effect of either stuff-ups, as Labor says, or projects that really should be out of the remit of this government because they will not be able to deliver it. It is guaranteed that they will not be able to deliver this on time or on budget. We know there have been ongoing increases in caps. It’s uncapped as to how much will be spent by the government on the stadium. It’s really interesting to see that Labor can hammer the government on the ferries and we will be discussing that in the next motion.
Mr Willie – We support the ferries and hold them to account. Same thing.
Ms BURNET – Well, there’s a lot of blowout in costs, Josh. There’s a huge blowout of costs. If they don’t see that this is going to be the same situation with any stadium at Macquarie Point, they have a another thing coming.
The stadium is one of the biggest asks of the Tasmanian population. Mark my words, this is going to be one of the biggest asks financially. This will be a huge drain on Tasmania’s finances. Every man, woman and child will be paying for that stadium for a long time to come. There will be intergenerational debt and I don’t think we can get away from that. To think that there isn’t going to be an impost on future Tasmanians is laughable. We hear the Premier talk quite often about the dream for Tasmanian youngsters, but I think Mr Bayley eloquently stated the concerns of Tasmanians now, with young Tasmanians not being able to access nutrition, food, housing and all of those things that should be a right.
We’ve heard people talk about how there are two pots of money, operational versus building infrastructure, but at the end of the day, this government has a responsibility to its people. We’re not seeing that responsibility taken up.
Should this stadium go against what the Project of State Significance findings were from the TPC, if this House and the other House vote in support of the stadium, we might as well have the naming rights for the stadium as the Rockliff Austerity or the Abetz Austerity stadium, because there will be massive cuts to services and other infrastructure projects. I wonder how many infrastructure projects will be set aside so that money gets poured into the stadium build? That might be a question for Estimates.
Will the AFL stadium help with health and wellbeing outcomes for Tasmanians? I don’t think so. I fear that this will be a situation where we throw good money after bad, bad money after good, whatever the saying. We will continue to waste money on this project.
Thank goodness for the delegation that went to speak to the AFL because having those conversations to turn the AFL around, while it wasn’t successful, it’s important to have those conversations. We haven’t seen that from this government. The opposition has been reluctant to think that we could possibly change the AFL’s mind. However, this is an important thing and it’s through conversation that you can get those changes. Therefore, I commend this motion to the House and thank Mr George for bringing it forth.
