Spokesperson Roland Browne said: “Mr Lennon brought Tasmanians the pulp mill nightmare, and this is just another boondoggle whereby Mr Lennon’s company gets the most valuable real estate in Hobart for nothing, to sell off for a great deal while taxpayers remain on the hook for the cost of the stadium. The money should be going to health and housing.”
“It’ll make a fortune for the developer and for Mr Lennon, but nothing for Tasmanians who will lose their public space.”
If anything, it’s an even worse deal for Tasmanians than the government’s own stadium proposal. But it’s hard to pick as neither proposal is adequately costed.
“This proposal highlights the gross failure of planning by the State Government. The starting point should be to identify a suitable location for a stadium, with space, access and transport availability, and then look at design proposals. This government has not done any of this work, and so we have ever crazier proposals plonked in front of us trying to pretend the impossible can be made possible—that Tasmania can afford a new stadium and that it must be on this site.”
Mr Browne said Our Place’s architectural advice was that the Lennon-led consortium’s stadium would be considerably higher than the illustrations, and will similarly desecrate the Cenotaph and blight the inner city’s heritage.
“There is nothing good about this proposal except for the benefits Mr Lennon’s company would derive from it.”
Mr Browne issued a reminder of the words of ex-Victorian Premier Jeff Kennet that there needs to be a “Plan B” for a Tasmanian football team that doesn’t involve building a new stadium in Hobart.
As Mr Kennett pointed out, “interest on the monies borrowed, losses on the stadium each and every year, will be costs borne by the Tasmanian public for years, not the government, as the government has no money of its own. It is all public money. And that’s before the Tasmanian government funds the new Tasmanian team.”
Mr Browne said what was needed now was leadership by our government to ensure there would be a Tasmanian team by working for a compromise as advocated by Mr Kennett. This crazy Regatta Point proposal is not that compromise.