Mr BAYLEY – Minister, I had the privilege to attend a few sporting events across the weekend, went to the tennis on Friday, the South Hobart B League game on Sunday, both televised to national and international audiences. The tennis centre had a whole range of facilities in temporary structures out the back that were brought in on the Spirits. Darcy Street had part of its grandstand steps taped off, presumably because they were unsafe.
The talk amongst all sports is the amount of money that’s going to the AFL, $115 million, we’re just hearing, now being gifted to the Devils to build a new facility down there they will own.
What do you say to these other codes who are scrimping and saving and doing their very best to play international and sometimes national levels with completely substandard facilities? They cannot get a look into your government to get the level of assistance that they need to meet the needs of their players. Some of these codes are far more popular and far more played in this state than AFL, for example.
Mr DUIGAN – I would have to reject that. This government, if you cast your eye around all the sporting infrastructure that’s being built in Tasmania at the moment and has been over the last five years, or the life of this government – you have to go back sometime in history to find a period of building of sports infrastructure similar to this.
I went to the tennis on Sunday, and I sat down with Tennis Tasmania to better understand their hopes.
Mr BAYLEY – Challenges.
Mr DUIGAN – Well, to hear how they will prioritise spending of money that we have promised for them.
I do understand it is a lot of money. It is a huge opportunity for Tasmania to have our own AFL team. It is something that we have strived for for decades. We are on the very precipice of that decision now and I hope that that all goes well.
Activity creates activity, and we are investing there. We are investing in community sports very heavily in each corner of the state – we continue to do that. I do understand though. Certainly one of the things I see as you travel around the state looking at sports infrastructure the job that we have ahead of us to make our bathrooms and our change rooms multi-user and all of those kinds of things. I don’t resile from the fact that there is a job of work to do, but I don’t think that precludes us from seizing this very substantial opportunity.
Mr BAYLEY – You point to the history of investment up until this point, but obviously the level of investment that’s happening at the taxpayers’ expense at the moment in relation to Mac Point and all the upgrades, for example, some of which we support, but obviously the Macquarie Point stadium is the case in point. $2 billion over 10 years is a conservative estimate, I think.
Do you have confidence? Can you look those other codes in the eye and say you’re going to be able to give them what they need in over the future years to meet the needs of their players to compete at the highest level that they possibly can as well? Because a lot of people are saying that they just simply believe that you can’t and that you won’t.
Mr DUIGAN – That’s what this is about, confidence, and we have the confidence.
Mr BAYLEY – It’s not just about the confidence, it’s about money, it’s about budgets.
Mr DUIGAN – to build this very substantial investment in Tasmania now, and Tasmania into the future and that advances the case for our state and for all the things that you talk about. If we shy away from this opportunity that, in some ways, is a self‑fulfilling prophecy.
Mr BAYLEY – I don’t think it would be shying away from the opportunity. It’d be taking on board expert advice, making decisions based on evidence and fact, and the advice of experts.
Mr DUIGAN – Indeed, and if you cast your eye around Tasmania and the rest of the country and the globe, anything that stands out was built against the advice of experts.
