For over a year now, Tasmanians have been speaking up to oppose the construction of a new stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart.
And now, Tamanians have given generously to help spread the word on the big island to the north.
At Our Place, we know there are many mainlanders who love our state and, in particular, its capital city’s precious waterfront. We know that they love to visit Salamanca and try our fabulous seafood down at the wharf. And those who have not yet visited know the area from watching the end of the Sydney to Hobart. And we know they don’t want those experiences blighted by this obscenity:
Tasmanians know that this behemoth is:
- in the wrong place
- bad economic and public policy
- rooted in abuse of power.
So they have told their premier, their opposition leader, their electoral candidates and their sitting parliamentarians that building this will:
- cause destruction of our loved heritage
- mire our state in debt
- further erode our trust in the political process.
For over 12 months, Tasmanians have lobbied, pledged, petitioned, made submissions, rallied, attended meetings, written letters, given funds and voted for their future.
At Our Place, we are now calling on them to turn their attention to the AFL, joining mainlanders in a call for a fairer deal for our state. Generous Tasmanian donors have allowed us to place this full page ad in the 24 May 2024 edition of The Age:
Our Place marked the 12 month anniversary of Premier Rockliff’s announcement of his ugly stadium by launching a crowdfunder for ads like this. Mainlanders will be able to see what is planned for our Hobart. We also need to bring them up to speed on the disastrous economic consequences for Tasmania if it were to go ahead.
It took some weeks after his announcement for the Premier to tell Tasmanians what he had signed them up for. When he finally released the Club Funding and Development Agreement (aka ‘Contract’) to the public, the full burden of risk to the Tasmanian community was revealed, including sole responsibility for all cost overruns, penalties for unfilled seats, and multi-million dollar fines for failing to meet staged completion dates. Click below to read the Contract.
And all this for a state with a struggling economy, massive debt, and ever-increasing failures in delivering housing, health and education services to its citizens.
The signatories to this shameful deal were Premier Rockliff and then AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan. If you care about retaining Hobart’s precious heritage, Tasmania’s economic future and the wellbeing of the Tasmanian community, please join us in asking Mr McLachlan’s successor, Andrew Dillon, to renegotiate the Team Agreement.