Dr Nicholas Gruen’s damning report on Macquarie Point stadium sparks calls for rethink of mega-project
A sobering independent report on the Macquarie Point stadium has prompted calls for the state government to abandon the “vanity” project - but the Liberals have refused to budge.
Tasmania
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A prominent independent economist has lashed the state government’s proposal to build a stadium at Macquarie Point, saying the wrong site has been selected, the costs have been underplayed, and the project is showing the “hallmarks of mismanagement”.
Dr Nicholas Gruen’s report was commissioned by the government as part of its confidence and supply agreement with the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN).
It found that the stadium, which the government has estimated will cost $775m to build, will actually carry a price tag of $1.1bn, including $85m proposed to be raised through land sales.
Business, Industry and Resources Minister Eric Abetz released the report on Friday morning, thanking Dr Gruen for the work he had undertaken.
But Mr Abetz said the Liberals would still be pushing ahead with the stadium plan because it “will shape Tasmania for generations and unlock decades of investment, jobs, and opportunity”.
Dr Gruen’s 170-page review concluded that the benefit-cost ratio of the stadium had been “significantly overstated” and would amount to a return of 44 cents in every dollar invested by Tasmanian taxpayers.
“The project is already displaying the hallmarks of mismanagement with much of that mismanagement stemming from officials’ attempts to deliver the project within the Tasmanian government’s commitment to limiting the stadium’s impact on state debt to $375 million,” he said.
“This commitment cannot be met.”
Independent expert’s recommendations
Dr Gruen recommended that the government and the AFL go back to the drawing board and renegotiate to extend the “unrealistic” timeline for the delivery of the stadium.
He said the site selection process was “hasty and partial” and gave the “strong impression of being crafted to support conclusions already made”. Community consultation, meanwhile, had been “meagre” and potential impacts on the Hobart Cenotaph and the waterfront area had not been “properly assessed”, according to Dr Gruen.
The state government has committed $375m to the project, while the federal government will contribute $240m. The AFL will chip in $15m and the government expects private investors will meet any funding shortfalls.
The AFL’s granting of a licence for a Tasmanian team in the national competition is contingent on a roofed stadium being built at Macquarie Point by 2029, with the Tasmania Devils set to officially enter the competition in the 2028 season.
Dr Gruen said the community division associated with the project was “creating needless reputational risk for the AFL” and urged both the government and the league to reach a new arrangement where the Devils would play their first 5-7 seasons at Ninja Stadium in Bellerive and UTAS Stadium in Launceston while a “proper process is put in place to locate, design, cost, and build a new stadium”.
The economist accused the government of trying to “disguise” the true cost of the project and “apparently ignoring the interest that must be paid on the $375 million additional borrowing”
Dr Gruen’s report made four recommendations, including that the timeline for the stadium’s construction be pushed out, planning for the project be integrated with a strategic plan for Hobart’s future, the government undertake a fresh and frank analysis of how much the stadium will cost, and that delivery of the project be driven by “optimising its value for money to the Tasmanian community”.
The review also implores the government not to dismiss the ‘Mac Point 2.0’ stadium proposal by Stadia Precinct Consortium. Dr Gruen said actively considering this option would “bring a certain competitive tension on other proposals for the stadium” and that a “general call-out” should be issued for other public-private partnerships.
Opposition responds to report
Labor sport spokesman Luke Edmunds said the report cast doubt on the Liberals’ ability to deliver the stadium but he stopped short of walking back the Opposition’s support for it to be built at Macquarie Point.
“Clearly, Jeremy Rockliff’s promise of ‘not a red cent more’ is completely in tatters, and there’s even doubt about whether the project can be delivered from the budget that they’ve set,” Mr Edmunds said.
Greens Treasury spokesman Vica Bayley said Dr Gruen’s findings vindicated what “many” in the community had already been saying about the stadium deal.
“This report clearly shows why this stadium should not be built, and we call on Liberal and Labor politicians to get their priorities straight and put a stop to it,” he said.
Roland Browne, the spokesman for anti-stadium group Our Place Hobart, said the government needed to “abandon this vanity project” and begin “healing community division”.
Independent MPs Rebekah Pentland and Miriam Beswick, who represented the JLN when the confidence and supply agreement was struck with the Liberals, said it was time for Premier Jeremy Rockliff to reassess whether the stadium was in Tasmania’s best interests.
New deal needed, Lambie MP says after scathing report
Tasmanians should be asked where an AFL stadium should be built and a new deal negotiated with the AFL, Jacqui Lambie Network MP Andrew Jenner says.
The Lyons MP said the review undertaken at his party’s request by economist Dr Nicholas Gruen “vindicated our concerns” about the stadium’s cost and location.
“I’m pleased the report is out, because it obviously highlights the issues that we’ve got with the financing and obviously the position of the new stadium,” he said.
“I’m not anti-stadium, definitely not anti-football team. It’s just got to be done a bit more sympathetically with the people in Tasmania. I think we should put it out there — where would Tasmanians like it and where do they think it’s best placed?”
He criticised the government for dismissing the report and not standing up to the AFL on its demands.
Senator Lambie, who supports York Park in Launceston as the home of the Tasmanian AFL team, was digesting the report and will comment in the coming days.
‘This is the right deal’: Liberals break silence over stadium report
Since Dr Nicolas Gruen’s scathing report on the proposed stadium was released on Friday, the state government has not made an official media appearance. Until Sunday, when a Liberal MP fronted the media.
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