Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I move –
That the House –
- Notes the Premier and the Treasurers’ commitment to Members of the Legislative Council to secure their support for the State Policies and Projects (Macquarie Point Precinct) Order 2025, and all Tasmanians at the time, that the state’s contribution to the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium will be capped at $875 million.
- Acknowledges the motion passed by the House on 6 May 2026, calling for an updated cost estimate for the Macquarie Point Stadium to be released to the public by 11 August 2026.
- Condemns the Rockliff Government for defying the will of the House in refusing to provide an updated stadium cost estimate.
- Agrees that whether or not Members support the stadium, Tasmanians expect transparency on public expenditure for one of the largest infrastructure projects in Tasmania’s history.
- Orders the Government to table:
- an updated stadium cost estimate, by 19 August 2026; and
- the final contract cost and possible variations contained within any contract to construct the Macquarie Point Stadium before such a contract is signed.
I rise to talk to this motion, which I’ll paraphrase for those who may be listening in. At its heart, it’s a transparency motion in relation to the cost estimate of the Macquarie Point stadium. We in this House called on the government to be transparent some many months ago and just this week learned that the government was going to snub the view and the will of the House, so we have seen fit to put another motion to order the government. To paraphrase the motion, it notes the Premier’s commitment to upper House members around the cost cap associated with the stadium in order to secure their vote. It acknowledges our motion from May that called for an updated cost estimate. It condemns the Rockliff government for refusing to give that cost estimate and it agrees that, whether or not the members support the stadium, there should be transparency. Ultimately, where the rubber hits the road, at 5(a), it orders the government to table, an updated stadium cost estimate by 19 August 2026. That’s next week. And 5(b), that the final contract cost and possible variations contained within any contract to construct the Macquarie Point stadium be tabled before such a contract is signed.
No matter what your position is on the stadium, whether you support it or not, we can all agree that scrutiny is important. We can all agree that public interest remains high and concerns over the cost of the stadium and further cost blowouts is of critical importance at a time of budget austerity. This year’s budget is chock‑full of cuts, both overt and covert. $1.47 billion in operational efficiencies, that’s cuts. $700 million from Health, $228 million from Education and Children and Youth, $264 million from NRE, the list goes on. Every single dollar of taxpayer money is important and the question on so many people’s lips is, ‘How can we afford a third AFL stadium when government services are already failing to keep up?’ It’s a good question and I expect that all members in here are hearing it regularly. That’s why we’re keen to understand the latest stadium cost estimate, and believe there needs to be full transparency ahead of the signing of any construction contract or contracts. Evidence we heard during Estimates is that the minister is hands off when it comes to signing the contract, and responsibility sits with the chair of the MPDC only. Thanks to the order that passed the parliament, the minister is not required to sign the contract, despite the profound impact on the budget and future budgets.
And a reminder regarding the budget. The cost of the stadium is not only reflected in the capital expenditure to build the stadium, adding the cost to prepare the site, connect the power, construct the concourse, upgrade the streetscape, move The Goods Shed, the list is very long. The general government sector, the same place from which we pay nurses, teachers, police officers and park rangers, will have to find many tens of millions of dollars, $30-plus million from 2029 onwards just to pay for the almost half a billion dollars of Macquarie Point Development Corporation borrowings. Half a billion dollars at the current cost estimate.
Which brings me to the motion. This House passed a motion in May calling for the publication of an update on how much the construction of the Mac Point stadium is expected to cost. It was a recognition that construction costs had escalated, exacerbated by the conflict in the Persian Gulf. Expert warnings highlighted that project budgets prepared beforehand would likely be inaccurate, underestimated. Our motion passed with the support of Labor and much of the crossbench, with a timeline set for the provision of an updated cost estimate by yesterday. Well, that day past and Tasmanians remain none the wiser. They know that the costs will have blown out again, but they’re in the dark about how much. This is the Rockliff government thumbing its nose at parliament and ignoring the call to produce a transparent updated cost estimate. No-one genuinely believes the stadium cost is going to be $1.13 billion, including the government’s own Treasurer. Last week in the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Abetz as good as admitted the cost of the stadium would likely go up as a result of rising construction costs. He as good as walked away from the government’s $875 million cost cap.
The Liberals seem to forget that this is Tasmanians’ money and they deserve to know exactly how much the stadium is going to cost them. What other developer would treat its funder with such contempt? The Tasmanian tax payer is on the hook to fund the lion’s share of the stadium. Surely they deserve some transparency. Transparency on what they’ll pay and transparency on what they’ll miss out on because they’ll be paying for the stadium for generations in both cold hard cash and diminished substandard services. Let’s not forget that it was a promised cost cap of a $1.13 billion construction costs and an $875 million capped Tasmanian contribution that secured wavering Legislative Councillor votes for the stadium to pass against the expert advice.
The expert panel we stood up to assess the stadium, assessed it on a supposed $945 million construction cost estimate, and recommended it not proceed. They found that it would diminish Tasmanian’s economic welfare, preclude genuine urban renewal on the site, damage important heritage values and prove very difficult to deliver given the site constraints, toxic contamination and other challenging issues. Challenging issues that are generally fixed by guess what? More money. The day the experts recommended against the stadium, the Premier rejected their advice, bulldozed on with the project and announced another cost blowout. Surely, if the cost estimate has blown out again, over the $1.13 billion and over the cost cap commitments made to Legislative Councillors, this parliament and the people we represent deserve to know.
Let’s not forget, once upon a time, on day one of an election campaign, the Premier tried to nullify the issue and pledged to Tasmanians the stadium would cost them $375 million and ‘not one red cent more.’ Now that’s up to $875 million – many, many, many red cents more. Again, every dollar that’s spent on the stadium and servicing its debt isn’t being spent on the essential services that Tasmanians need and deserve. Whether you’re for or against the stadium, everyone should be able to agree that Tasmanians deserve to know how much the stadium is going to cost them. After all the budget blowouts that we’ve seen on the stadium, Tasmanians simply can’t trust the Rockliff government is managing this properly behind closed doors. This government seems ready to write a blank cheque to whoever is going to construct the stadium. No‑one wants this to be another Spirits fiasco, but the Mac Point stadium is a slow‑moving train wreck of bigger proportions, greater impacts and a culpability that sits with more than one minister. That’s why we’re advocating for transparency.
We’ll hear from the minister shortly about the risk to the procurement process. The MPDC letter tabled in PAC justifying a refusal of the parliament’s call for an updated cost estimate, citing the live procurement process and the problems that it would create. Well, of course it would say that. Why wouldn’t the proponent that’s overseen repeated cost blowouts already offer advice against the release of another one? At least until it’s used a blank cheque. The Premier has signed us up and our children to a debt that will cripple the state for decades. And why wouldn’t the minister make this case? He’s backed the MPDC every step of the way, wears it stuff-ups and spouts its excuses and justifications. The Liberals are trying to pull the wool over Tasmanians’ eyes by saying releasing a new cost estimate will endanger the tender process. But it’s more spin from a government intent on keeping another stadium price rise secret from the very people who will pay for it – Tasmanians.
If you follow the logic of the MPDC argument, there’d never be a cost estimate in the first place because it would compromise negotiations, be it the original $715 million, the second $745 million, or the $1.13 billion, all past estimates, releasing a project estimate would become a future problem when it came to contract negotiations. The government already had made its $1.13 billion cost estimate for the stadium price public before the tender process even began. It didn’t seem to think having an estimate in the public then endangered the tender process. There’s no reason to keep a new cost estimate on the stadium a secret. How can the Macquarie Point Development Corporation even assess whether the tender bidders aren’t taking taxpayers for a ride if they don’t really know how much the stadium should cost in a very different environment to their initial estimate. Surely it would strengthen their hand to have a proper estimate on the public record. Any competent project manager would be updating their cost projections on a regular basis and being transparent with those who will fund it. Just because the funder is the Tasmanian people doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have transparency over how much this project is expected to cost. In fact, you’d think it would be more important than ever.
Now the government’s going to say it won’t provide it to the parliament at all and we’re not asking for all the information the proponent would have. We don’t need a breakdown of every line item it is estimated to cost. We’re just calling for the overall figure. The biggest danger to the tender process is the government’s terrible management of it. We have one company who has been waived through to tender for the stadium despite being non-compliant by failing to disclose involvement in two active criminal cases. Despite it being black and white, MPDC is saying that it didn’t need to be disclosed, and the EOI stands. The expression of interest stands, and they’re passed to the tender process. A discredited company is now allowed to tender as one of three in a joint venture bid. What a sham of a process. All to create the semblance of competitive tension in the tender. In failing to comply with parliament’s call, the Liberals have shown they won’t willingly provide Tasmanian taxpayers with the information they deserve unless they’re forced to. That’s why we’ve brought this motion today which seeks to order the Liberals to comply with the will of the parliament and to provide an updated stadium cost estimate.
We’ve also heard the Premier, clearly under pressure, making a statement yesterday, and I quote:
I have seen the Greens’ call for a half-baked construction estimate in the middle of a live negotiation.
Well, you bet it’s a half-baked construction estimate, Premier. Everyone knows it’s half-baked, and that’s part of the problem. That’s why we’ve called on you to be more transparent and release an updated one – release a fully cooked one that has got credibility and substance. But, given the pressure, the Premier suggests on social media that he’ll provide an update, supposedly, and I quote:
Well before any final construction contract is signed.
But what exactly does that mean? What exactly is an update? Is it the cost? Is it the contractor? Is it the scope of the works? Or is it they’re getting close; need more time; the contract is not yet signed; hold on, this is a generational opportunity; blah blah blah. Yesterday, when we Greens pressed the Premier on what this update would exactly be – if it would be the full stadium cost and when it would be provided – he wouldn’t give us an answer. This is a Premier trying to hide more broken stadium cost cap promises from the public. Last time we called on the government to provide it, we had the support of the House, but the government refused.
This time our motion seeks to order the government to disclose it and release contract cost and variations ahead of it being signed. But, this time, it seems it will fail. We know, we hear, and we understand the utter dismay people in the community have with the Labor Party on this issue. They see Labor beating up the government on budget cuts, on job losses and worsening services. But green-lighting this project no matter what the cost, the impact on the city and the advice of the experts has them wondering what Labor are all about. It was Labor’s complicity, utter capitulation to premier Rockliff’s blank cheque approach that let the AFL off the hook and allowed them to blackmail an entire state. ‘No stadium, no team’, no matter the fact that we’ve long deserved one. There’s no true national competition without Tasmania and we have two perfectly good AFL stadiums where senior level AFL has been played for decades. With Labor on board, why would the AFL budge? Labor has pledged to scrutinise the stadium and we welcomed its support in May, helping pass the motion calling on the government to table a cost estimate by yesterday. But it, like the rest of us who supported that motion, have too been snubbed by the government. The government’s refusal is a snub to all of us.
So, we were keen to get its support today, but, I suspect, to no avail. No amendment convinces it to come out from under Premier Rockliff’s shadow on the issue and hold him to account for some transparency and see it stand up for what many of its members and its voters want. They want Labor with a spine with some get up and go with their interests in mind. Instead, they’ve got Liberals light, little daylight between their policies aside, a head scratching stupid commitment to continue to torture dogs for the entertainment of people and the profit of the gambling sector despite the community sentiment.
After all Labor have said about scrutinising the stadium, it won’t act in the public interest and ensure the public knows exactly how much they’re going to be up for before this contract is signed. Many think that’s a shame, and I agree. Yesterday it was standing with the Liberals and blocking us sitting on the Public Accounts Committee. Today it’s likely to back them on keeping the next stadium contract blowout a secret.
To conclude and let this debate flow, this is a project and a process that’s been a travesty since day one. It was born from deceit. It was born when the Premier was seeking tripartisan support for the Devils team and looked former member for Clark and leader of the Greens Cassy O’Connor in the eye and assured her that the Tasmanian bid would not rely on a stadium. That’s still a story that’s up on the AFL website, and yet we know behind the scenes the government and its departments were negotiating with the AFL all along and promising a stadium.
There was the ‘$375 million and not one red cent more’. There was the ignoring the expert advice based on a profound cost estimate and the fact that a new cost update was only delivered the day the planning commission made its recommendation that this should not proceed.
This stadium is indeed a train wreck that’s happening on our watch. It’s going to continue to give pain to the Tasmanian community. It’s going to cost generations to come. We’re going to be paying for it with cash. We’re going to be paying for it with diminished services and we’re going to be paying for it with a city that’s going to struggle to cope under both the construction and the operation of the stadium.
This is a motion that’s designed to force the government to release the information that Tasmanians all want to see. Every Tasmanian knows that $1.13 billion is just the start of the cost estimate when it comes to this stadium. All Tasmanians are going to be paying for it both now and into the future, and all Tasmanians deserve transparency. We commend this motion to the House because it’s about transparency, it’s about accountability and it’s about delivering some honesty into this debate so that we fully understand exactly for what we’re getting ourselves on the hook for many, many years to come.
