The proposed Macquarie Point stadium – what would be the world’s largest oval-shaped timber stadium – is on life support after Jeremy Rockliff, Tasmanian premier, lost a no-confidence vote on the floor of Tasmanian parliament today. It means Premier Rockliff has been forced out of the state’s top job with Tasmanian voters destined to go to a second election inside 12 months after MPs voted 18-17 to support a no-confidence motion in his leadership.
The motion, moved by Labor Leader Dean Winter, cited growing state debt, the plan to cut public sector jobs, and the sale of state assets as reasons for a lack of confidence in his leadership. Rockcliff blamed his downfall on the government’s plan to build the stadium, adding that party members warned him the project would cost him key votes in a state riddled with a large Budget deficit and shortages in government services.
Rockliff’s support for the Macquarie Point development sank his government.
Yesterday, Liberal Party insiders said public sentiment towards the 23,000-seat roofed stadium had shifted sharply in recent months: “Once a fringe issue, it jumped from 2% to 13% in importance, with opposition particularly strong in the north and north-west,” according to Brad Stansfield of Font PR – and long-time chief of staff to Will Hodgman, Tasmania’s premier from 2010 to 2018. Stansfield said that during the 2024 state election campaign, “We spent most of our time trying to polish that stinking pile of poo down there on Macquarie Point.”
“I’m not talking about the poo plant; I’m talking about the proposed stadium, and we were just very fortunate that the Labor Party, at that point, had a confused position on the stadium,” Stansfield said. And if the no-confidence motion passes, he said the stadium is finished regardless of what follows. “Any option you look at Stadium 1.0 for the sake of the argument is dead; it’s gone.
Rockliff had been pushing to fast-track the stadium through parliament.
The no-confidence vote comes after the Rockliff government produced new renders and draft legislation that, if passed in parliament, would streamline the approval process for the $945 million stadium.
“The Government has reviewed and acknowledged the concerns and challenges raised within the draft Integrated Assessment Report by the Tasmanian Planning Commission,” according to Eric Abetz, Minister for Business, Industry and Resources, who would have the responsibility for issuing “permits for the new stadium: “This draft bill and subsequent planning conditions address these points and demonstrate the government’s efforts to ensure the legislation is comprehensive,” he said.
It comes after Wood Central earlier this month revealed that the Tasmanian government “wanted to go its own way” and fast-track the Macquarie Point Stadium using a ‘design and construct’ rather than the private-public partnership model favoured for the Brisbane Olympics. A key condition for the Tassie Devils AFL license, Abetz said the fully-roofed venue is the ideal stadium location: “It is time to draw a line in the sand and provide certainty for our own AFL Team and the enabling infrastructure that is critical to making our team a success.”
“The impact the multipurpose stadium will have on our economy, jobs, and investment is simply an opportunity we can’t miss. Now, it’s time we got on with building it,” Abetz said.
The Tassie Devils are now on life support.
Meanwhile, executives from Tassie Devils, which holds the licence to become the AFL’s 19th team, are understood to be in tears, and the expansion club’s future is in serious jeopardy. Yesterday, Kath McCann, the club’s general manager of marketing, corporate affairs and social impact, broke down when fielding questions at a media event. “Future generations power this club,” she said. “I’ve got 50 students out here in my sight line, they power us every single day, and they will keep doing that.”
Today, former Collingwood Football Club president and Channel 9 celebrity Eddie McGuire said the AFL must now consider other expansion options if Tasmania rejects the plan: “What Tasmania doesn’t need is every week to have an advertisement that they are a second-rate state,” he told The Nightly. “I think Tasmania deserves to be finally seen for the great state that it is.”
“You want to be careful, 18 club presidents don’t sit down and say ‘we will be $400 million better off’ without the team,” he said. “There is a fair bit of investment from the AFL. It will probably cost $30 million a year. If you start saying no and it becomes too much of a pain in the neck, people may say: ‘We could have a third team in Perth, one of the central coast of NSW, or Darwin or Alice Springs. We need to get on it with or go to plan B.’
“The whole philosophy of this exercise was to take it to world-class level rather than having a game of footy in the wind and rain. The teams must look like Collingwood at the MCG, Adelaide at Adelaide Oval or Brisbane at the new Olympic stadium.”
- To learn more about Macquarie Point, click here for Wood Central’s special feature including the full plans for the stadium.
