Labor backflips on Hobart AFL stadium, backs project

Citing ‘altered economic conditions’, Tasmanian Labor has backflipped on the proposed AFL stadium and now supports the project – with a caveat.

Artist’s impression of what the proposed Hobart AFL stadium at Macquarie Point could look like. Picture: AFL

Tasmanian Labor has backflipped on the proposed Hobart AFL stadium and now supports the project – if it can be delivered within the Liberal government’s funding cap.

New Labor leader Dean Winter said on Monday the state opposition, which under his predecessor, Rebecca White, opposed the stadium, had changed its mind due to altered economic conditions.

“Tasmania’s economy has slowed – 5000 jobs have been lost since Jeremy Rockliff lost majority government,” Mr Winter said. “Building companies are going bust.

“There are no major infrastructure projects scheduled to come online once the Bridgewater Bridge is finished.

“A stadium will mean thousands of jobs in construction, including hundreds of apprenticeships. That’s why Labor will be backing a new stadium.”

Labor’s backflip gives the Rockliff minority Liberal government the numbers to secure approval for the stadium in the House of Assembly, should it comply with the funding cap.

However, Mr Winter said Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff needed to deliver his promise to build the 23,000-seat roofed stadium with state taxpayers’ contribution capped at $375m.

“Labor’s support doesn’t mean the Premier will be let off the hook for the promises he has made – far from it,” Mr Winter said.

“He needs to deliver his capped spend of $375m, with private investors to cover any shortfall.”

Some experts believe is impossible for the current proposal for Hobart’s Macquarie Point – besieged by heritage and site size constraints, as well as strong community opposition – to be delivered on this basis.

Mr Winter joined a broad range of business and community leaders in urging Mr Rockliff to instead consider an alternative proposal for a stadium at Regatta Point, known colloquially as “Stadium 2.0”.

This alternative project, further developed in terms of design, community support and financing, would involve significant elements likely to attract private investment, including a hospital, apartments, hotels and carparks.

“While we will not be standing in the way of the current Macquarie Point stadium proposal, we still hold concerns around the deliverability of the project,” Mr Winter said. “The Premier should not rule out the Stadium 2.0 project.”

Since taking the Labor leadership following the party’s fourth consecutive state election loss in March, Mr Winter, from the party’s right faction MP, has repositioned it as aggressively pro-jobs.

“Labor has changed,” Mr Winter said. “Under my leadership, the Labor Party stands for safe, secure, well-paid jobs. That means we will support projects with the potential to create thousands of new jobs – including a new stadium.”

By throwing the issue back to the minority government, Mr Winter has ensured Labor cannot not be blamed for the stadium falling over.

Doubts remain about whether the project as currently proposed can pass the state’s planning process and an upper house vote, and attract sufficient private investment.

Mr Rockliff welcomed Labor’s about-face. “Great to see Labor is finally on board on Mac Point – looking forward to working together to get this done,” he said.

Under the terms with Mr Rockliff’s contract with the AFL, the stadium is a prerequisite for the state gaining and maintaining the competition’s 19th team licence.

Stadium opponents condemned Labor’s change of heart, questioning whether it was influenced by former Labor premier Paul Lennon’s involvement in the Stadium 2.0 consortium.

“The fix is in - Dean Winter’s expected backflip on the stadium and his backing of Paul Lennon’s stadium proposal … makes very clear that it is not him, but Paul Lennon who is now running the Labor Party,“ said Roland Browne, spokesman for anti-stadium group Our Place Hobart.

“By offering in principle support to the idea of a stadium, Mr Winter is seeking to set up the grounds for his party to deliver to Paul Lennon support for his stadium v2 proposal, once the Rockliff stadium is found by the Planning Commission or any independent review to be unworkable. It stinks.

“If Mr Winter was serious about Tasmanian jobs - as he claims to be - why not spend that $700 million on health and housing where it is desperately needed, instead of a stadium?”