Our Place – Hobart has responded to the release of economist Nicholas Gruen’s report on the cost of the proposed stadium with a mixture of surprise and unsurprise.
Spokesperson Roland Browne said “We’ve been predicting the cost was well above $1billion for the last year. The surprise here is that the cost will be well above that figure.
This is a report commissioned by the Tasmanian government from one of Australia’s leading independent economists. We welcome his assessment that the project has understated costs, overstated benefits, and is in the wrong location. It vindicates community opposition to the ludicrous proposal.
At a cost of over $1billion, the government must abandon this vanity project. The state cannot afford it now, and in fact could not even afford it at $750m. We need this money for housing, hospitals, education and other essential government services.
This costing makes a lie of Premier Rockliff’s “not one cent more than $375m” pledge made at the commencement of his 2024 election campaign. If any evidence was needed to demonstrate that pledge to be a cynical and hollow lie, this is it. If evidence was needed to show the government’s costings for the stadium have been a deception from the word go, this is it.
And the government has known all along the cost would be massively more than the 2022 estimates of $750m. And that’s why they’ve tried to dupe the Tasmanian Planning Commission by only addressing the cost of the actual stadium building, and not the underground carpark, fit-out, access roads, associated infrastructure, and more.
The Planning Commission’s Integrated Assessment is now pointless, as the State cannot afford this project. It is an indictment on the government’s process, and highlights ongoing project mismanagement.
The Premier should abandon the project and work on healing community division and planning how he’s going to achieve AFLW and AFL teams for Tasmania, without any stadium at Mac Point, and without bankrupting the state. He should have done this in late 2022. If only he’d stood up to the AFL.”