With our Parliament having comprehensively rejected the approach peddled by Mr Dean Winter during the post-election “negotiations”, Labor has elected a new leader, Mr Josh Willie.
With a left faction leader in place, Tasmanians have a right to expect that the party of the workers will have the courage to abandon its recent sad history of backing the big end of town and forge a return to traditional Labor values. We need Mr Willie to lead a party that is set to pursue social justice outcomes and a progressive policy agenda within tight financial constraints, acknowledging the need to work productively with a largely progressive cross-bench.
Join Our Place in telling Mr Willie that this reset cannot include a stadium at Mac Point, and must include giving expression to a meaningful vision for the site that provides for housing and community spaces that can be enjoyed by all Tasmanians on 365 days of the year.
What do we know about Mr Willie?
We know that he has served on the Public Accounts Committee and has an understanding of the dire state of Tasmanian’s budgetary position.
In his Media Release of 21 August 2025, Mr Willie drew on his background as a teacher:
“As a former primary school teacher, and someone who has served in both houses of Parliament, I know firsthand the transformative power of strong public services and what they mean for everyday people. Good schools, accessible healthcare, reliable transport, safe housing – these aren’t luxuries – they’re the foundation of a fair society and a strong economy.”
A profile published by the ABC on the same day paints a fuller picture. Click here to read the full profile piece:
What should we expect of Mr Willie?
In the same Media Release, he stated:
“Right now, families are doing it tough. Many are struggling from paycheck to paycheck. Too many of our children aren’t getting the education they deserve. Our public health system is under immense pressure. Workers, especially in essential services, are being stretched thin, local businesses are navigating a tough economic environment, and jobs and opportunities remain scarce for too many young Tasmanians.
These are problems we have talked about for too long without enough action.”
At Our Place, we could not agree with him more. There is far too much to be done to repair past damage to our health, housing and education systems to even be thinking about finding NEW money for a NEW project – one that’s not wanted. Our question for Mr Willie is:
“Apart from the massive blowout in cost estimates for a proposed stadium at Mac Point, what has changed since the days when Labor members’ offices were the primary distribution points for the first NO STADIUM stickers in Tasmania?”
As he attempts to recapture the party’s thinking at the time, he need look no further than the speeches of his new Deputy, Ms Janie Finlay:
“I cannot imagine this Tasmanian Government believes it will get away with building a stadium for $750million . . . many people struggling in our community cannot believe this Government would continue to be obsessed with the idea of building another stadium – a third stadium in Tasmania, a second one in Hobart – at a time when there are so many other priorities Tasmanians expect this Government to be focused on . . .They have their priorities all wrong, but they do not understand. They are not hearing the concerns of the Tasmanian people . . . we have the perfectly good York Park in Launceston, and Bellerive here in the South, where Tasmanians know they can enjoy top-level AFL content right now, here and there. The task force said maybe in the future, but now is not the right time.
Tasmanians do not want a stadium over support of our health, support of housing, support of education, or support of our public sector workers, who right now are having to take action to be heard to have their conditions and their pay relative to the amount of effort, support and care they are giving and understanding that Tasmanians need.” [Janie Finlay, 27/09/2022].
Click here to learn more about those speeches:
What do we need Mr Willie to do?
Tasmanians know that we can’t afford to keep up the constant spending, already a massive drain on our budget with not a sod turned, to pursue this mad idea. At some point, someone will have to do as Tasmanians have been asking – enter negotiations with the AFL to get a deal that works for all of us. This vacant role is ready for Mr Willie if he is up to it.
He can be the champion of the teams we CAN have, the teams we can afford to have – not the teams that got tied to a stadium we can’t afford in a backroom deal signed by Premier Rockliff. We know that Mr Rockliff can’t deliver on that deal. The teams tied up in that deal are HIS to lose and there can be no argument that Labor or the crossbench will be to blame when that deal fails.
Mr Willie needs to position himself to deliver the teams Tasmania deserves and he needs to do that soon.
Please join us in encouraging him to have the courage to get on with it before we waste any more of the money that he himself wants to see directed towards the things we need.
Will Mr Willie listen?
There is so much for Mr Willie to gain if he does listen to Tasmanians on this issue.
One upside for him of a clear NO STADIUM stance is that it will start the work his party needs to do to win back the voters who have abandoned them. He knows that the majority of Tasmanians don’t want Mr Rockliff’s stadium. He knows that is particularly true of the women voters who have left his party in droves.
We acknowledge that there is a cohort of diehard stadium supporters but Labor stands to win many more voters with a NO STADIUM stance than it might lose by continuing to back Mr Rockliff’s dud deal. And he can win over that cohort if he gets them their teams through negotiations.
And what a win for Mr Willie if he leads the Parliament in its first crucial step towards budget repair. We know that the next announcement of the latest blowout in cost estimates for the proposed stadium is in the offing and we are hearing that Government numbers in the order of $1.4B to $1.5B (up from the $945M they claimed just a few months ago) are on the books. Mr Willie could make a massive contribution to budget repair with this one simple decision. He knows the crossbench will back him.
Our message to Mr Willie:
“It’s time for change. It’s time for compromise. It’s time to work to deliver what your community wants.”
If you join Our Place in this action, you will be asked to enter your TAS postcode. Your letter will then go to Mr Willie and be copied to other Labor members of both houses for your electorate or division.
But we know that there is nothing more effective than an in-person approach. We encourage you to use the link below to find the addresses of your local members’ electorate offices. Call in for a chat.
Want to know more about Labor’s history on this issue?
Our team has done a lot of work on this in the past. You can read much of it in an “explainer” for a previous CALL TO ACTION. If you scroll to the very bottom of that, you will find a button that will take you to an even more comprehensive read on this history. Please note as you read that the action discussed in that explainer has been closed off.
Click below to learn more of Labor’s history as NO STADIUM campaigners and their yet-to-be-explained shift to be in lockstep with Mr Rockliff: