Media Release
3 February 2025
Our Place’s spokesperson Roland Browne has accused the Macquarie Point Development Corporation (MPDC) of staggering incompetence in its recent dealings with the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC) over the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium.
“As is fitting for the Rockliff government – which forgot to build a jetty for new ferries – the MPDC seems completely ignorant of its responsibilities as developer of the stadium under the Project of State Significance process.”
In November 2024 the TPC was forced to send the MPDC an extraordinary request for the very information that should have been included in the proposal from the beginning. The MPDC is yet to respond.
Instead, the MPDC went back to the TPC and, at a meeting on 17 January 2025, asked such basic questions of the assessment process that the TPC had to produce a document explaining the scope of the assessment process to MPDC.
Mr Browne said: “This is extraordinary. It shows MPDC, and State Growth, are completely out of their depth with this project. What TPC has told them is what was obvious from the statutory scheme. It appears neither MPDC, nor State Growth, have looked at the scheme or, if they have, they fail to understand it.
“It also appears MPDC are naively questioning the breadth of the TPC’s assessment. And the TPC has even needed to explain to MPDC the assessment will be as broad as the TPC requires it to be, in the circumstances. That will include an assessment of all the components of the project, including the components MPDC has sought to obscure, such as the 3-storey underground carpark and the massive northern access road to the site.
“Even worse, the same government that paid AFL luminary Alistair Clarkson $100,000 for a report he never produced, has committed $65 million for consultants for the project and yet the MPDC seems to not have clue about what it is meant to do to get its proposed stadium through the assessment process.
“Is it arrogance? Or is it incompetence so typical of the Rockliff government? One thing is for sure: Jeremy Rockliff has the reverse Midas touch – everything he touches falls apart. And so too will this stadium.”
The meeting notes and document explaining the scope of the TPC assessment, recently released by the TPC, can be found here: