What’s next? The AFL and Labor are at loggerheads, with Labor claiming a stadium cannot be built at Macquaire Harbour and the AFL saying it must.
Details remain scarce about how Tasmanian Labor would “re-negotiate” the state’s contract with the AFL for a state team and stadium at Macquarie Point — with the league again re-affirming its position that a deal is a deal.
Labor insists it will “negotiate a better deal for Tasmanians” if it topples the incumbent Liberal Party at the March 23 state election.
But so far, Labor has been unable to reveal what terms it would seek to change and whether or not it has determined the league is even willing to meet back at the negotiating table.
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Labor remains adamant the deal is a poor one for Tasmania and that it will “re-negotiate” with the AFL, should it win power next month.
“We want to sit down like adults, talk to the AFL about how we can ensure we get an AFL team in a deal that can actually happen,” Labor’s economic development spokesperson Dean Winter said.
But Labor continues to evade the question of just how it intends to renegotiate the signed deal with the AFL, which remains strident that it will not budge on the terms of the contract.
“We do need to have a stadium in Hobart, at Macquarie Point, with at least 23,000 people and with a roof, because that was a pivotal part of the business case,” AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said on Wednesday.
“That’s what the business case rested on, and a key part of that business case.
“That’s the agreement the AFL has with the Tasmanian government, that’s the agreement the commission has, and that’s the agreement the 18 AFL clubs have.”
Caretaker premier Jeremy Rockliff described the deal as “a great deal for Tasmania”.
Terms of a potential re-negotiation by Labor are unclear, with the party refusing to detail which specific elements of the deal it wants changed.
It is also yet to unveil an alternative plan for a home base for a Tasmanian AFL club, should it be in power following the election.
Labor doesn’t believe stadium can be built at Macquarie Point
Labor’s position on the stadium has shifted from outright opposition, to a vote in support of sending the project through the rigorous Project of State Significance process.
Yesterday, the party confirmed if elected, it would not stop or pause that process.
How Labor intends to re-negotiate the AFL contract while the stadium is continuing to be assessed by the original deal criteria as part of that process, is unclear.
Labor is steadfast, however, that the stadium “cannot possibly be built” at Macquarie Point because it “won’t fit” and because it is on “contaminated” and “reclaimed land”.
“I don’t actually believe you can build a stadium on that site, and I certainly know you can’t build it for $715 million,” Labor’s economic development spokesperson Dean Winter said.
“This stadium cannot possibly work. The price cap doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t take much scratching to work out this doesn’t pass muster. It’s not a proposal that can possibly happen.”
Macquarie Point Development Corporation, which is the proponent for the prospective stadium, disputed Labor’s claim, saying its stadium footprint report developed by Cox Architecture and Stadiums Tasmania demonstrates a stadium will “fit” the site.
The site is scheduled to be fully remediated by July, with works on the final portion of the site underway.
In a statement, the corporation said that “since remediation works commenced on site in 2015, extensive geotech investigations have been undertaken” which “do not infer that a stadium development would be unstable or could not proceed”.
Labor could endorse an alternative stadium proposal that has been floated by engineer Dean Coleman and former Labor premier Paul Lennon, but that project, which includes a broader development including a private hospital, would require $715 million of state money to complete, and cost $2.3 billion in total, according to the proponents.
Construction of the alternate stadium, at nearby Regatta Point, would also require the excavation of 800,000 cubic metres of Jurassic dolerite fill from underneath the Hobart Regatta Grounds, which would then be used as a platform for a roofed stadium on the River Derwent and a 2,500-space underground car park built in the vacant space.
On Saturday, caretaker stadia minister Nic Street labelled the alternate plan as a “nice idea that won’t happen”.
Labor has previously suggested that a refurbished Bellerive Oval on Hobart’s eastern shore could be the club’s southern base, despite the Tasmanian AFL task force report stating that the arena would be “sub-optimal” for the side to play higher drawing teams.
The venue’s owners, Cricket Tasmania, are also seeking to sell it off, citing it as inadequate for the future requirements of its teams.
Labor is not the only political party in a stadium spin.
The Jacqui Lambie Network has removed an anti-stadium petition and campaign from its website as it grapples with the pro-stadium position of several of its candidates, including Lyons prospects Troy Pfitzner and Andrew Jenner.
At an anti-stadium rally in Hobart last year, Lambie suggested to protesters that Premier Jeremy Rockliff should “stick the stadium up his bum”.
Lambie also opposed federal government funding for the stadium.
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