After losing the AFL high-performance centre to Kingston, Clarence Mayor Brendan Blomeley has again taken aim at the state government’s handling of the project.
Speaking at Monday night’s council meeting, Blomeley described the consultation process as “unconscionable”, as councillors voted to seek the release of all documents relating to the decision.
He laid out the drawn-out process that cost Clarence ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars through an elector poll and tied up council resources for over a year.
“The negotiation and consultation practices undertaken by the government in respect of the high-performance centre were extremely disappointing. Bordering, in my view, unconscionable,” Blomeley said.
“In my experience, the process had no proper structure and had been poorly handled by the Department of State Growth and the Minister.”
“I was concerned the government wanted a free ride from day one … the state government approached councils looking for land to be handed over, not willing to make use of their own land or purchase private land.”
Blomeley said it “became clear” the state was trying to “push costs” back onto the council and community.
“For council and our community, we had a number of non-negotiables. Most importantly, we weren’t prepared to sell or transfer the Rosny Parklands to the Tasmanian Government,” he said.
The now-$105 million facility was first planned to be built at Rosny but shifted to Kingborough’s Twin Ovals, a move Blomeley said occurred at the eleventh hour.
Councillor Daniel Hume, who moved the Right to Information motion, accused the government of deliberate secrecy around technical assessments that influenced the final decision.
“I can’t see any reason why the Tasmanian Government would keep those documents secret,” Hume said. “Unless, of course, the decision wasn’t a technical one and was actually a political decision.”
Blomeley also questioned whether the Kingborough project was even progressing, pointing out that no development application had been submitted – despite the AFL aiming to have teams on the field by 2026.
“I have grave doubts the teams will be training at the Twin Ovals,” he said.
The council will now lodge a formal RTI request to access all documents related to the assessments of both the proposed Kingston and Rosny sites.
