Murdoch, MONA and the AFL’s chokehold on Tasmania
byGabriella Coslovich
Gabriella Coslovich is an arts journalist with more than 20 years’ experience, including 15 at The Age, where she was a senior arts writer. Her book, Whiteley on Trial, on Australia’s most audacious of alleged art fraud, won a Walkley in 2018.
The Tasmanian government has been busy pushing its business case for the controversial $715 million AFL stadium it is busting to build on the last large tract of prime waterfront land in central Hobart – Macquarie Point.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff has been talking up the stadium for months, bowing to the demands of the AFL which will only grant Tasmania a football team on condition of a new stadium being built at Macquarie Point, even though that site had been earmarked for other plans. The AFL has pledged $15 million towards the stadium – about one-50th of the cost.
