Mr BAYLEY question to MINISTER for MACQUARIE POINT URBAN RENEWAL, Mr ABETZ
You recently said that you see it as your duty to be transparent about the stadium. Yesterday the other place made its expectations on transparency clear. A motion was put that requested the government to provide that place with the final cost details of the stadium so it can be subject to parliamentary scrutiny before the contract is signed. It passed with resounding success, and this wasn’t just by those opposed to the stadium. Two independent MPs who voted for the stadium supported the motion. Tasmanian Labor, who obviously voted for the stadium, supported the motion. Minister, will you honour this request? Will you make sure parliament is provided with the final cost details of the stadium so they can be scrutinised before the contract is signed?
ANSWER
Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Deputy Leader of the Greens for the question. As I stated yesterday – and yes, he is correct – we have a duty as a government to be transparent and we have been and will continue to be so. In relation to the actual cost for the stadium, I have been, I think, as clear as I possibly can that I cannot and should not disclose that figure until such time as I am able to, and that will be on the basis of advice from the Macquarie Point Development Corporation and the probity adviser. Should you wish me to go against the probity adviser, good luck to you, but I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to go against the advice of the MPDC if they tell me – and as a result, the government – that it could prejudice ongoing commercial negotiations.
My duty, first and foremost, is to be very careful in relation to the advice I might be proffered by the probity advisor and the MPDC and then, ultimately, ensure that we get the best possible deal for our fellow Tasmanians and get this iconic gateway to our city, something that you’ve always opposed other than some ‘Eden Project’ that arose and then disappeared into thin air. Ten years that industrial wasteland has been laying vacant. We have a plan, something that 70 per cent of this parliament supported, and we are now delivering on that.
I can understand there are members of parliament who would love to know all the internal workings of how we are getting to inking a contract towards the end of the year. The order of the parliament has been pretty clear. I’m not involved in that process. We have probity advisers, we have other people who are doing that work, keeping it, to a certain extent, at arm’s length from myself and the government. Given that is what the parliament wanted and voted for, it is quite disingenuous now to seek to claim that I should be clothed with all this information and divulging it when I don’t have it. When I am told by the probity adviser and the MPDC that now is an appropriate time to release, that is what I’ll do. That is exactly what I did when we had the cost upgrade to $1.13 billion. I was told on a Monday and released the new figure the very next day. We will be transparent. We are a transparent government, but I just encourage certain people to restrict their urges.
The SPEAKER – The honourable Treasurer’s time has expired.
Supplementary Question
Mr BAYLEY – The Treasurer talked about 70 per cent of parliament supporting the stadium order. That’s a matter of fact and record, but it was based on a written cost cap offered up by the Premier, and that got a number of votes over the line. You mentioned commercial negotiations. We’re not asking you to release this ahead of commercial negotiations concluding; we’re asking you to release this when they are concluded but before you sign the contract. Will you do that? Will you conclude the negotiations and then release the final cost before the MPDC signs the contract?
Mr ABETZ – I thought I made it exceptionally clear that I will release the figure once I am at liberty to do so, courtesy of clear advice from the probity adviser and the MPDC. Once I’ve got clearance from those two that there is nothing holding us back we will be in a position to release the figure. That is what my duty is, that is what I will do –
Dr WOODRUFF – Will it be to parliament, which is what the motion last night was about?
The SPEAKER – Order, honourable Dr Woodruff.
Mr Abetz – It all depends when I’m given that advice. I don’t know when I’m going to be given that advice. Once it is received it will be made public, either from this lectern or at a press conference. Whenever I am at liberty to make that figure available of course I will make it available, but I won’t be going against probity advice.
