Macquarie Point stadium has no economic modelling for state revenue, treasurer admits
Tasmania’s Treasurer has admitted there is no economic modeling to show how the state’s proposed $715m Macquarie Point stadium will generate returns to government.
There is no economic modelling to show how much revenue the proposed Macquarie Point stadium will return to the state government, a parliamentary committee has heard.
Treasurer Eric Abetz said many of the benefits of the $1.13bn stadium were hard to measure, but it didn’t mean they were not real.
“Can I put a dollar figure on it and say that’s going to be worth $1 or $10?” he said. “No, I can’t.
“But when you look at the total picture and see the potential benefits, even if some of them don’t come off, but some of them do, Tasmania will be better off.”
Mr Abetz said many benefits would flow from the construction of the stadium, including from the establishment of the AFL team with its full complement of staff.
“When the precinct gets developed with the stadium, that will mean we will get, as a state, a completely new payroll of $44m.
“That will see that $44m being expended throughout the community.
“On the $44m, the rough assessment was $2.5m payroll tax, and that is just the AFL component that I can think of at the moment.
“It stands to reason people will be moving to the state when they do say, there’s a fair chance, a realistic chance, they’ll buy a house, they’ll be paying stamp duty.
“If there were to be a hotel built, they would have a substantial number of staff.
“Of course, it’s speculative, that if you didn’t speculate, you would never build or start a business.”
The committee heard the interest cost on borrowings for the stadium will be $21.9m in 2029/30, rising to $32m in 2031/32.
Independent MP Kristie Johnston said the cost was concerning.
“We’re putting the groceries on the credit card at the moment; we can’t afford our basic services at the moment, yet we’ll be having to borrow to pay interest costs for Macquarie Point Development Corporation,” she said.
Mr Abetz said the capital cost of building the stadium would be offset in part by the sale of land in the precinct for housing or hotels.
The committee also heard Mr Abetz had not been involved in drafting the bill to create a state-owned insurer TasInsure.
“I think you understand how the food chain works in politics, there is somebody that sits above the Treasurer,” he said.
“There is somebody that sits above the Treasurer and Treasury, and that is the Premier.”
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