Tasmania AFL stadium bid: Deceit claims over link between team and stadium plan

Opposition parties say they were misled into supporting an AFL team when the government knew approval was conditional on a stadium — but the Libs says it’s time they get on board for the good of the state.

Greens leader Cassy O'Connor speaks to the media at Macquarie Point on Friday, March 24, 2023.

PREMIER Jeremy Rockliff has been accused by opposition parties of deceit for saying as late as August last year that the state’s AFL team bid was not dependent on the construction of a stadium.

Then-premier Peter Gutwein revealed the government’s plans for a stadium in March 2022.

Mr Rockliff became Premier in April and all three major Tasmanian political parties signed up to back the team bid in May.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan made the ‘no stadium, no team’ understanding explicit in June – although Mr Rockliff was insisting as late as August: “The stadium is not part of our bid.”

Evidence before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Hobart on Friday appeared to show the AFL and government had an understanding that the team bid and stadium were a package deal at the time of – or well before – Mr Gutwein’s initial announcement.

Opposition leader Rebecca White said the evidence before the PAC confirmed that Tasmanians have been deceived.

Labor leader Rebecca White speaks to the media on Parliament Lawns on Friday, March 24, 2023.

“There can be no doubt that despite the repeated reassurances from the Premier Jeremy Rockliff that the stadium was not part of the bid to get a licence for an AFL team it was in fact a contingent part of that bid from the time Peter Gutwein announced the roofed stadium for Hobart,” she said.

“Tasmania has been lied to, the Labor Party has been lied to, the broader community has been lied to about our desire and our right to get an AFL team in this state not being contingent on a stadium,” she said. “I think right now Jeremy Rockliff has a lot of explaining to do as to why his government has signed Tasmania up to the dud deal to deliver a stadium to get an AFL team when we deserve an AFL team in our own right.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said she felt Mr Rockliff had deceived her when seeking support for the team.

“If this morning’s sworn testimony from State Growth Secretary Kim Evans is true, then Jeremy Rockliff has lied to the Greens in order to secure our support for the state’s AFL bid,” she said.

Mercury front page showing support for a Tasmanian AFL team by all sides of parliament.

“Mr Evans told the Public Accounts Committee that it was always the AFL’s expectation from day one, that there would be a new greenfield stadium attached to any licence bid.

“That is that the state would have to commit to building a new stadium in order to be successful in securing a licence.

“In our negotiations with the Premier about joining a tri-partisan push for the state to join the AFL, we sought an assurance that the stadium was not part of the bid.

“In April last year and again in May, he looked me in the eye and he said ‘Don’t worry, Cass, the stadium is not part of the bid’.

“Now we believe we have been completely misled.

“If we knew that there’d been a secret agreement to attach a stadium to the state’s AFL bid, there is no way we’d have signed on.”

A government spokesman called on the opposition parties to back the stadium.

“The stadium was not part of our bid but it has been crystal clear for over a year that for club presidents to approve our bid, the new stadium is a requirement as without it the team is not viable,” he said.

“As well as securing the team we deserve, the Mac Point project will generate massive economic benefit and create thousands of jobs.

“It’s a win-win for Tasmania and it’s about time the Labor-Green opposition got on board.”