Motion calling for rethink on stadium fails in Legislative Council

A motion calling on the state government to renegotiate its stadium deal with the AFL has been voted down in the Legislative Council.

Macquarie Point Multipurpose stadium north west gate. Picture: Mac Point Development Corporation

A motion calling on the state government to renegotiate its stadium deal with the AFL has been voted down in the Legislative Council.

Member for Nelson Meg Webb moved the motion calling on the government to reopen talks with the football league on the location and construction time frame for the stadium.

Debate on the motion continued late into Tuesday night.

Ms Webb condemned the way the government had progressed Tasmania’s bid for a team.

Independent MLC Meg Webb.

“This Premier has demonstrated throughout this whole saga a propensity to act in autocratic, secretive, and unethical ways, in my view,” she said during debate on the motion.

“This is the Premier who promised … back in 2022 that the team would not be contingent on a stadium, that they would be separate matters altogether.

“The misleading, unaccountable behaviour has only progressed from that point.”

Leader of Government Business Leone Hiscutt described those opposing the stadium as “extremists and anti-development voices”, comments she later withdrew.

“Let me be very clear: no Macquarie Point stadium equals no AFL team. It goes together,” she said.

Labor MLC Luke Edmunds spoke against the motion.

“If Tasmania does not deliver the stadium now, our reputation will be in tatters and we

will be left without the AFL club we deserve and all the benefits it will bring,” he said.

“The cost of not building the stadium and losing the Devils – I do not think our reputation will ever recover.”

Ms Webb said she was disappointed her motion had failed.

“After a marathon debate, it is disappointing that the Legislative Council failed to seize the opportunity this week to pursue renegotiations with the AFL in order to ensure Tasmania’s AFL team does not become collateral damage should the state be unable to comply with the current agreement time frames and deadlines,” she said.

“The Premier likes to assert it is sensible to seek a range of options, yet for some reason that logic was not applied by either the Liberal Members or the Labor Opposition when it came to needing to prepare for a Plan B that doesn’t cost us the AFL team should the state not be able to meet the agreement deadlines.

“Contrary to some arguments put during debate, this call to reopen negotiations is not mutually exclusive to the ongoing PoSS process by the Tasmanian Planning Commission.

“Instead, potentially revised contractual agreements surrounding time frames and deadlines could assist in addressing serious concerns raised in the TPC draft Integrated Assessment Report.”

The motion was lost 4-10. Those for were independents Meg Webb, Rosemary Armitage, Mike Gaffney and Green Cassy O’Connor.

Against were Liberals Leone Hiscutt, Nick Duigan, Jo Palmer, Kerry Vincent; Labor’s Sarah Lovell and Luke Edmunds and independents Ruth Forrest, Tania Rattray, Dean Harriss and Bec Thomas.

Originally published as Motion calling for rethink on stadium fails in Legislative Council