Today’s admission from the Minority Rockliff Government that it plans to fund the shortfall for building a stadium with funding through the Macquarie Point Development Corporation is also an admission that Premier Jeremy Rockliff lied to Tasmanians.

The Premier promised Tasmanian government capital expenditure on the Macquarie Point stadium would be capped at $375 million and ‘not one red cent more’, and repeated the commitment more than 100 times.

Funding the project through the Macquarie Point Development Corporation is entirely inconsistent with this promise.

After taking the massive risk of introducing enabling legislation, the Premier already has a tall task ahead of him to get his stadium through Parliament.

If the Premier fails, it will be a mortal blow to his leadership. It’s clear he needs to provide more answers to Tasmanians and parliamentary decision makers about the project’s progress and time is running out for him to do that.

Labor has changed and we are back as the party of jobs and economy in Tasmania.

We support a stadium because it will deliver jobs and help secure the AFL & AFLW teams Tasmania deserves. But we will use every mechanism available to us to hold the Premier to account for its delivery

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer