Draft stadium bill a spear-tackle to Tasmanians

Draft stadium bill a spear-tackle to Tasmanians 

Senator Tammy Tyrrell, Independent Senator for Tasmania, comments on the enabling legislation released today for the Macquarie Point Multipurpose Stadium:

“The Tasmanian Liberals are desperate to bulldoze this project through Parliament no matter the cost. Or who they have to run over to get there. It's the equivalent of spear-tackling the Tasmanian community.

“The scale of this legislation is gobsmacking. The Bill for the stadium says it prevails over any other existing bill or planning scheme. That means if unforeseen issues pop up, for example, the Liberals can completely disregard the law and push forward.

“The draft report admits that there will be impacts to the Hobart Cenotaph and cultural heritage sites. But it goes on to say that a stadium and a team are more important, so they don’t really care. 

“The Liberals have finally come to the realisation the rest of us knew months ago; the stadium will cost about a billion dollars. They’ve also admitted that the stadium itself has never been expected to make money, despite repeated claims about the economic benefits. 

“It’s never been clearer: upper house members must vote against this project. We all want a team. But we absolutely can’t allow the Tasmanian Liberals to sink millions of taxpayers dollars into another botched infrastructure project."