After a storm of negative headlines over the Spirit of Tasmania debacle and a week of concern about a budget projected to plunge the state into $8.6 billion of debt in four years’ time, the government needed a win.
They could have been forgiven for thinking that the release of the development application for its much-debated Hobart waterfront stadium would deliver it.
Surely an improved cost-benefit analysis and the vision of a waterfront full of football fans after a Friday night match could shift the needle?
But at a press conference without Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King — despite both being in town — questions quickly turned to things the government would prefer not to talk about.
Blown budgets.