When Mr Josh Willie assumed the party leadership nearly a year ago, we asked our campaign supporters to join us in writing to him and his fellow Labor parliamentary members calling for a policy reset on the stadium. Click here to read about the state of play at that time (NOTE that the action referred to in that piece has been closed off).
He didn’t listen then. But the settings have changed markedly since the December 2025 vote that approved an order for a stadium at Mac Point and there has never been a better time than now for Labor to step up to save Tasmania.
Let’s be clear: what we’re proposing is not easy. None of this is easy. In fact it’s been made diabolically difficult by the foolish Rockliff decision to tie the teams to the stadium. But with good leadership from the ALP and from the cross-bench, it can be achieved. And it must be achieved – the alternative is a sinking economy and a failed state.
What’s changed since the December vote?
💰 The May State Budget was delivered by Minister-for-a-stadium-at-any-cost-Abetz, unveiling job cuts to pay for a stadium (without, of course, mentioning said stadium) and refusing to increase funding for the Integrity Commission, which was one pillar of his agreement with then MLC, Dean Harriss, to get his pro-stadium vote.
📖 An updated Gruen report was released in June, with copies provided to all parliamentarians. Its key finding was that the stadium would boost state debt by $2.3 billion, with ever-escalating costs due to:
🚧 previously uncosted infrastructure requirements;
📉 changing economic conditions, including credit downgrades; and
🪖 other considerations affecting the overall economic case e.g. the Iran war (still no end in sight).
🔁 Conduct of a tender process that falls well short of best practice, with one bid held together with bandaids (so they could say they had more than one) and the other including a company that failed to disclose, as is required, that it faces criminal charges. And MPDC covering up the failure to disclose.
🌧️ A June 2026 Deloitte’s report saying Tasmania’s economy is woeful.
🗳️ Plummeting polling results that must be causing massive headaches at Labor headquarters.
❌ Labor’s heartland being smashed by cuts to jobs and services.
🏟️ Labor’s elders calling for the party to walk away from the stadium.
📺 Public commentators expressing concerns about Labor’s performance as an Opposition
Everyone who holds Labor values dear is looking for a way out.
Let’s help them find it!
What do we need to do next?
We are asking you to write again to Mr Willie and also to Ms Ella Haddad. As the two Labor Lower House members for Clark, they already know that we don’t want them to destroy a precious precinct in their own electorate in the name of a now discredited “build it and they will come” mantra.
It doesn’t matter which electorate you are in – the message to them both is the same:
You do know the solution - you just need to move on it.
It no longer makes sense for Labor to call on us to back their efforts to save jobs in education, health and other sectors that are vital to their commitment to employment and services while, on the other hand, they still back in the stadium that can only be funded if those jobs go.
We know Labor members are good at numbers. Now is the time for a head count of those on the crossbench who oppose the hideous waste that the Mac Point stadium represents and some simple sums that show a pathway to government.
They do know that the prospects of a Labor government without crossbench backing are zero for years to come. Crossbench backing will only come when the stadium proposal is abandoned. And, let’s face it, no-one wants to be in government with that albatross around their necks.
Join our call for Labor to ditch the dud stadium and prepare itself for government
What’s the trap Labor must avoid?
There is no better explanation of this than that set out in the updated Gruen report:
Dilemmas and fallacies, the economics and politics of sunk costs
As costs are progressively committed to a project — site excavated, contracts signed — two things typically happen. The costs of exit grow: remediation, penalties, an unfinished hole in the ground. At the same time, the costs of the additional work necessary for completion falls.
A decision-maker who knew from the start the stadium would cost $1.5 billion might never have begun. But faced mid-project with that reality, completing it may genuinely be the least-bad option. This is the sunk cost dilemma — a trap set at the moment of under-informed commitment.
This should be distinguished from the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ which can be understood as a psychological phenomenon. Here, once funds have been committed, the decision maker is loath to cancel the project because for no better reason than that they don’t want to crystallise a loss which would be crystalised once the project is abandoned. The sunk cost fallacy involves continuing with a project even though continuing with it sinks the decision maker further into the financial mire. The sunk costs have all been spent, and nothing can bring them back. Proceeding in this situation simply pays a further price for not facing the full implications of the original decision.
Politicians face their own version of the dilemma. As documented by Bent Flyvbjerg, decision makers and the bureaucracies that support them find it easier to get buy-in to projects if their estimated costs are unrealistically low. Once the project is committed to, all those who have agreed to it find the cost escalation embarrassing, but they defend the project because cancelling it and being seen to waste the money already committed would be more embarrassing. The public experiences something similar. It is reluctant to “walk away with nothing.” So as costs escalate, the political economy of exit hardens — even as the economic case for proceeding continues to weaken.
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What does Labor need to do next?
Labor can establish itself as a party deserving of government. Indeed, a government that leads Tasmania towards a future that gives hope and promise.
The tools Labor needs to do this are to hand:
🗺️ Dr Gruen’s updated report maps the pathway to AFLW / AFL teams for 1/10th the cost of the stadium.
🏡 Our Place’s Vision sets out a starting point for discussion about an optimal use for Mac Point, including housing that sees key workers living near to their places of employment.
🤝 The cross-bench stands ready for good-faith negotiations that can give Tasmania a government that cares about its future.
Tasmanians want Labor to step up and be the leaders the State is crying out for. That leadership cannot be outsourced to a football coach, a Teams CEO or a marketing firm.
Will Labor take up the gauntlet before this goes any further? Will they abandon the stadium, talk to the cross-bench and form a government that extracts Tasmania from this Liberal-led fiasco?