The latest comments from Premier Jeremy Rockliff pressuring the Federal Labor Government to fund his deeply unpopular $750 stadium in Hobart shows how desperate he is becoming.
The Mercury has reported today that Mr Rockliff says the stadium will be dead without Federal Government funding, despite originally spruiking that private investors would be lining up to take part in the project.
The Premier says he has presented the business case for the stadium but has kept the details secret from the Tasmanian public.
Tasmanian taxpayers still haven't seen proper costings, understand who will own and operate any stadium, whether it will operate at a profit or a loss or how the government plans to fund it given it has handed down budgets with record debt and deficit.
The Premier's constant claim that a stadium would help fund essential services like health and housing just doesn't add up.
On top of that, the Premier says this is an opportunity to turn what he calls the Macquarie Point "wasteland" into something iconic - after the Liberal government spent almost a decade pouring nearly $130 million into the site before ditching that investment in favour of a stadium no-one wants.
This process has been a debacle from the moment the former Premier Peter Gutwein announced a floating stadium at the start of the year, all because this government refuses to stand up to the AFL.
A stadium was never part of Tasmania's bid for an AFL licence and Tasmanians know this and they know that there are far more important priorities during a health, housing and cost-of-living crisis.
The AFL should grant Tasmania its licence without the need to build a taxpayer-funded stadium.
Rebecca White MP
Labor Leader
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure
