Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Deputy Speaker, unsurprisingly, I rise tonight to talk about the stadium, the Tasmanian Planning Commission’s report, and the completely unacceptable blackmail that continues from the AFL.
The Planning Commission’s report is utterly damning and under normal circumstances, with the government acting in the best interests of its people and with commonsense prevailing over vested interests, government would cut its losses here and now and abandon this proposal. That would save the taxpayer throwing good money after bad. It would save the community having to tackle this proposal further. It would mean we can get on with genuine urban renewal at Mac Point, development that delivers for people, that complements our city and creates a viable dynamic precinct that is accessible to all and comes with community support – like what was previously proposed, agreed and in part contracted out to developers so that they could build houses. We shamelessly had to pay our Melbourne-based developers to not build houses at Macquarie Point to make way for the Premier’s stadium folly.
In true Tasmanian style, this stadium saga has turned Mac Point into a true Tasmanian tragedy, in the suite of Tasmanian land use tragedies. Like my colleagues in the Greens and so many in the community, I have been involved in numerous land use conflicts where we, the community, battle to combat inappropriate private development on public land. Choppers, canal developments, cable cars, zip-lines – the list is long and ongoing, and the common theme is the values of the land and the fact that it should not be developed at all.
I reckon we all, to a person, agree that Mac Point is a huge opportunity as a brownfields development site on the doorstep of the CBD and a stone’s throw from the waterfront. With the stadium, it is worse than an opportunity lost. Reading the TPC’s draft assessment, it is abundantly clear that this stadium is a recipe for a monumental stuff-up that could change the face of the city and the state’s finances for good.
It is the Spirits shocker show mark two, with more permanent implications. The TPC have been clear. The Tasmanian Planning Commission are unequivocal in their condemnation of the application that has been put in. The project submitted does not even meet the Project of State Significance order that was passed through this place. It excludes critical enabling infrastructure including the public access surrounds, the access road and bus plaza, the coach drop-off and parking, pedestrian infrastructure and more.
We are being asked to assess and approve a stadium that does not actually have the elements embedded in it to make it functional in our city. It will massively increase the state’s debt by almost $2 billion, costing the taxpayer an additional $76 million to service that debt. This is on top of an already out of control debt projection, a $500 million blowout this financial year, $9.6 billion of debt by 2028, $500 million each year to service it, $16 billion estimated by Saul Eslake for 2035, and a whopping $750 million in annual interest payments. The figures are staggering. It cannot go on.
After 10 years of the Liberals, Tassie is in a bit of a mess. We have a housing crisis, a health crisis and with some of the worst schooling results in the country; an education crisis. With the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC) finding stadium costs outweigh benefits by $669 million at present value, the statewide implications are profound – so profound that our credit rating is at risk. This is what the TPC report says:
The additional debt the state would take on to build the project and to fund its operating losses may trigger a credit rating downgrade.
Then there are the city and the social impacts: traffic congestion through the closure of lanes on Davey Street and maxed-out major thoroughfares; compromised pedestrian safety; significant negative impacts on heritage values in one of our most iconic heritage districts; non-compliance with longstanding planning rules and principles; predictable and unacceptable impacts on the sightlines and the reverential ambiance of places like the Cenotaph, an issue that has been raised by veterans and the RSL.
I will finish by condemning the AFL. Even now, in the face of this TPC report that says this stadium is unaffordable, will contribute to debt in the state, possibly damage our credit rating and have unacceptable impacts on our beautiful city, Nipaluna/Hobart, the AFL doubles down and says, ‘You must build this stadium to have a team, and it must have a roof.’ This blackmail must stop and the Premier needs to renegotiate the deal with the AFL.
Time expired.
