Macquarie Point Stadium backers reject panel's recommendation to scrap project
Supporters of Tasmania's $1.13bn stadium project have dismissed a planning commission's warning that its costs far outweigh economic benefits.
Backers of the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium have welcomed an expert panel’s finding that it was technically feasible to build the project – while rejecting the recommendation that it should not go ahead.
The Tasmanian Planning Commission’s Macquarie Point Multipurpose Stadium Integrated Assessment, released on Wednesday, found that the project would impose social and economic costs on the state that exceeded its claimed benefits.
The same day, Premier Jeremy Rockliff revised the cost of the build from $945m to $1.13bn.
The stadium is estimated to deliver economic returns worth an estimated $435m over 25 years.
Macquarie Point Development Corporation CEO Ann Beach said the negative aspects of the expert panel’s report were mainly matters of opinion.
“What the report does say is that this project can be built, developed, and operated safely,” she said.
“We’ve identified proposed conditions to make sure that can happen, and it’s really comforting to see that the panel isn’t identifying any concerns with how we might go about that.
“I think this is a really important development that people have really strong views about – we’ve done a lot of consultation.
“The precinct plan was informed by community consultation and we heard from people that they wanted to see a stadium on this site.”
Ms Beach said further delays in building the stadium would only increase the cost.
The MPDC will need to borrow around $500m to cover its share of the stadium costs, and service the interest on that debt.
“We’ll be working through their government about different models to do that,” she said.
“In the budget, we’d anticipate that there will be some base funding to help us provide the initial service of that debt in the initial years.”
Minister for Sport Nick Duigan said MPs would have the final word on whether the stadium went ahead.
“We absolutely thank the TPC for the work it has done and understand that it has raised its concern, noting that a lot of the concerns it talks about are potentially subjective in nature,” he said.
Independent MP David O’Byrne said that after carefully reading the TPC report cover to cover, his support for the stadium remained unwavering.
He said the TPC had failed to properly assess the benefits of the project would deliver to the state.
“It’s a dry economic argument and I think fails to really fully and adequately assess the full benefit of a project such as this and the cost of not investing in this stadium,” he said.
“Based on the numbers that we have now, based on comparable investments in other states, on facilities such as this, and the benefit economically, socially, and culturally, this is a significant and worthy investment.”
Greens MLC Cassy O’Connor said the TPC report said the state government would need to lift taxes by $50m a year to pay for the stadium, something the Premier has ruled out.
“If Jeremy Rockliff is saying there’ll be no new taxes to cover what will be about a $1.8bn debt within a decade? He needs to explain to Tasmanians what services will he cut.
“The Planning Commission is really clear that there will be a massive debt that’s laid on the shoulders of Tasmanians for a generation.”
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Originally published as Macquarie Point Stadium backers reject panel's recommendation to scrap project
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