Karen Brown Photography
Our 25 February 2025 meeting at Hobart Town Hall saw a full house of No New Stadium supporters listening to speakers from across the state, from different parliaments and from diferent political allegiances. It was an opportunity for them to proclaim their resolution to fight the stadium and help to better inform our response to the Gruen Review and the proposed stadium in general.
You can watch the full proceedings here:
You can view our photo gallery at the bottom of this page.
Our Place’s Roland Browne opened proceedings by setting the context for the current dilemma in which the state finds itself, caused in most part by the Premier’s failure to prosecute Tasmania’s case when negotiating with the AFL. His apparent capitulation and impotence were made worse by his secrecy. “His epic failure was that he could have been open with the community, told us of the AFL’s bullying demands and had the entire state backing him as he stood firm to the AFL.”
“So here’s the message for Premier Rockliff and the AFL. We will not be silenced. We will not be bullied. We are angry. We have truth and economics and reality on our side. We have the Gruen report, obtained by the Premier himself, vindicating our opposition to this crazy project. And most importantly, we have a vision for the site that includes desperately needed housing.”
Andrew Wilkie (Fed MHR, Clarke, Ind), as MC, introduced each speaker but threw in his take on the stadium for good measure: “I want to put it very clearly on the public record where I stand on the stadium. And in my mind it’s as simple as this. The community do not want it, the community do not need it, and the community cannot afford it.”
Nailed it, Andrew!
Vica Bayley (Tas MHA, Clarke, Greens) gave a brief analysis of the Gruen Review’s findings and highlighted the denial of justice this proposal represents for Aboriginal Tasmanians: “The Truth and Reconciliation park, once planned for Mac Point, promised prominence, scale, accessibility, and connection to create a space for remembrance, celebration, learning and hope. Now, exchanged for greed, this opportunity and the people working to achieve it, have been demoted. Now an Aboriginal culturally-informed zone is to be jammed between a highway and a stadium, with some of its paltry area further eroded between the publication of the draft and the final stadium master plans – swapped out for cricket nets.”
Richard Flanagan (journalist, author and activist) spoke with his usual eloquence and gusto exposing the lies underpinning this proposal: “Nor are there the thousands of jobs the Premier routinely lies about being created in construction and which his official echo chamber ‘dreaming Dean Winter’ consistently repeats. Even his own consultant, Left Field Project Solutions, here on page 13 admits that at the peak of construction the stadium will have a workforce of just 400, half of whom will be mainlanders. The report finds that this will push Hobart rents up by 1.1%. Not new homes being built at Mac Point as should be, but a housing crisis worsened. Not more Tasmanians working, but Tasmanians losing their jobs for mainlanders.”
Craig Garland (Tas MHA, Braddon, Ind) provided a North-West perspective, pointing to the inequities facing his constituents if a stadium is based in Hobart: ” … the justifications for this stadium (are) quite absurd. One is that the 18 presidents of the other football clubs voted on giving us a side on the contingency of a roofed stadium. Nowhere else in the country has that happened. So for the benefit of half of those AFL sides to come down here and play under a roofed stadium because it’s too cold, it’s too wet. For God’s sake, it’s a winter sport!“
“Basing this stadium down here is denying the NorthWest Coast that access to get caught up and wrapped up in that affordable afternoon’s entertainment that everybody should be able to do on a Saturday. … They expect us NW coasters, the most marginal electorate in this state, to come up with thousands of dollars just to come down here to watch football? That is wrong. It is basically wrong. And Jeremy Rockliff, being a NW coaster, should be ashamed of himself.”
Kristie Johnson (TAS MHA, Clarke, Ind) also summarised the findings of the Gruen Review and then directed her attention to Tas Labor: “It took Labor less than two months after the election to do an Olympic gold medal winning backflip and drop their opposition to the stadium like a hot potato. They seem perfectly happy to go along with the government’s fairy tale – the stadium will only cost Tasmanians $375million and not a red cent more. The problem is, of course, we all know the costs are going to be many times much more and we know that Tasmanians are on the hook for all of it.”
“I urge you to write to every Liberal and Labor member. Particularly, call on Labor to try and justify to you why they are doing nothing and letting this happen. Don’t let them continue to hide behind their Liberal colleagues. The Liberal government may be a lost cause because they are so firmly within the clinches of the AFL, but Labor can, and they should, oppose this stadium. They can use their numbers combined with the crossbench to put an end to this fiasco now.”
Jacqui Lambie (Senator for Tasmania), as her usual passionate self, delivered a fiery challenge to governments and the AFL alike: “Well, I say this, we have a federal election coming up. Yeah, we have a federal election coming up, Anthony Albanese. And you’re still not hearing it from me. It damaged you in the state election, mate. So not only am I coming for the AFL, I’m coming for you because I know how close those lower house seats are down here. I know how close they are, mate. I’m very aware of that. So, I am asking you, Mr Albanese, I’m simply asking you this. You need to quarantine that $240 million of the Australian taxpayers’ money until the AFL and the state government go back to the table and renegotiate that deal.”
“He needs to do that because it has been made quite clear from both of those reports. First of all, Tasmania cannot afford this. We cannot afford this. Secondly, we don’t need this. We have a perfectly good ground up in York Park.”
The wrap …
Andrew Wilkie brought the proceedings to a close by putting the motion to the meeting:
This meeting calls on the Tasmanian Government to:
(a) immediately abandon its Macquarie Point Stadium proposal before any more public monies are wasted on this unachievable project; and
(b) renegotiate the Team Agreement with the AFL to deliver AFL and AFLW teams while reclaiming the State’s sovereignty over decisions regarding where and when AFL/AFLW sporting facilities are to be built or upgraded.
All those in favour, raise your hand. Hands down. Against, raise your hand. Carried!
Unanimously!!!