Media Release
5 May 2025
No Stadium group Our Place – Hobart has described Premier Rockliff’s latest funding/debt proposal as another disastrous plan to foist an unwanted and unaffordable stadium on the Tasmania community.
Spokesperson Roland Browne said:
“It’s Trumpian – it’s full of deception. The Premier’s “not a red cent more” promise has been broken. It’s one broken promise – or lie, depending on how you view it – after another by this government.
The truth is the public private partnership was doomed as the project had no social licence, and the Tasmanian Planning Commission has emphatically rejected it.
Most telling is the government held this announcement off until after the Federal election – fully aware that the Liberal vote would be further eroded by their displayed incompetence.
The latest financing/debt proposal is based on a series of economic assumptions. With virtually all of the government’s economic assumptions about the proposed stadium to date having been debunked by experts, the latest will be no different.
This announcement stinks, like many before it. It is Trumpian to pretend the project is viable. It is not, whichever way it’s viewed.
They are going to borrow money to build the stadium – with underground carpark – and then sell off the underground carpark to pay for the stadium. It will be a massive debt. Hiding the massive debt as a way to fund the stadium is irresponsible.
It’s time to abandon this project and find a way for Tasmania to get AFL/AFLW teams without bankrupting the State.”