Parliament vote will decide team dream: Premier

The future of Mac Point stadium, and a Tasmanian AFL team, hinges on parliament passing enabling legislation to approve the construction project, the Premier says.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff. Tasmanian House of Assembly question time. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Premier Jeremy Rockliff has sent his clearest message yet to MPs: if they don’t pass the government’s bill to build a stadium, the state’s AFL dream is dead.

The government is pushing ahead with legislation to wrest approval of the stadium from the Tasmanian Planning Commission and give parliament the final say.

In what some non-government MPs have described as a high-stakes attempt to force the Legislative Council to back the government’s enabling legislation, Mr Rockliff said there was now only one way the state would get a team.

“Every MP will get a vote on whether the stadium will go ahead. Yes or No,” he said.

“If the vote is no, it is all over.”

“There will be no ongoing Project of State Significance [approval process].

“There will be no stadium. There will be no team.”

The minority Liberal government appears to have the numbers to prevail in the House of Assembly because of Labor’s recent pledge of unconditional support.

But it is expected the votes of a handful of Legislative Councillors will settle the fate of the as-yet unseen stadium bill.

MLC Bec Thomas was among a delegation of independent MPs who visited Adelaide Oval on a fact-finding mission last weekend.

“The way the Government is approaching its communication with MPs and the people of Tasmania on the stadium, one could wonder whether they are trying to get the stadium built or hoping to see it go down among a sea of shifted blame,” she said.

“It’s disrespectful to the intelligence of Tasmanians to try to trick them into believing responsibility for the AFL team lies with MPs who had no involvement in signing the deal with the AFL that mandated it.

“However, the Premier’s comments regarding the future of the POSS process have no impact on my decision-making.

“My decision will be based on whether there is sufficient information to demonstrate the stadium can be built at Macquarie Point and a clear plan on how the Government intends to pay for it.”

Also yesterday, a bid by independent MP Craig Garland to force a referendum on the stadium attracted four votes in favour and 30 against.

“The overwhelming feedback I have received from the community over the past year is opposition to the stadium,” he said.

“I will continue to push for appropriate use of taxpayer funds as we face record high government debt, and push the government to reconsider this dud deal forced on us by the AFL.”

The Greens also made what appeared to be a doomed attempt to refer Liberal minster Eric Abetz to Parliament’s Privileges and Conduct committee.

Labor’s Josh Willie said Mr Rockliff’s ultimatum was a high-risk strategy given tight deadines, an existing partially completed approval process and an uncertain timetable for parliamentary approval.

“He stuffed up the Spirits. He’s about to stuff up the Tasmanian teams,” Mr Willie said.

“If the Premier decides to backflip and not build the stadium, that’s on him. He will kill the AFL teams.”

He said parliament might amend the stadium bill, or order the production of documents, or seek further information, which could slow the process down.

“If the premier thinks he’s going to skate through Parliament threatening the upper house, not providing information to decision-makers, the bill will fail and it will be a catastrophic blow to his leadership.

“His leadership is intrinsically linked to this project and it’s very high stakes for the next couple of months.”

Greens deputy leader Vica Bayley accused the Premier of resorting to “standover tactics”.

“We think it’s completely reckless of the government to be blackmailing the upper house in this way,” he said.

“It just demonstrates that he knows that he hasn’t got the votes in the upper house and that he would never get a positive approval recommendation from the Planning Commission.

“So he’s trying to sidestep the Planning Commission, and he’s trying to blackmail the upper house.”

The government’s enabling legislation has not yet been made public but is expected to be released late in May, tabled in June and the government wants it to pass by the end of July.