Former Tasmanian Labor leader Dean Winter is standing by his unwavering support for the proposed AFL stadium following his ousting from the party leadership this week.
Winter was replaced by Josh Willie on Wednesday after Labor’s failed no-confidence motion against the Liberal government this week.
Speaking on SEN Tassie today, Winter said he was asked to “sacrifice” the stadium, salmon industry, forestry and greyhound racing during crossbench negotiations with the Greens and independents, but refused to compromise on his election commitments.
“I don’t think it has any integrity at all to just go and trade things away in order to become premier of the state,” Winter said this morning.
“I went to the election saying that I supported all of those things.”
Winter revealed that AFL executives Grant O’Brien and Brendan Gale visited his home just before the election campaign, sitting in his kitchen to discuss Labor’s stadium position.
“My son George was a bit surprised to see Brendan Gale in the kitchen and sat down and spoke to them.”
“I looked them in the eye and said we’re going to support this stadium,” Winter said.
“[I] wanted to make sure that we had the message, even to people like Andrew Dillon, during that time that there wasn’t going to be a change that would put in jeopardy the stadium and the team.”
“I don’t want to ever be responsible for not getting an AFL team for our state.”
‘It’s so important. It will be the biggest and best thing since Mona, I think, be inspirational for young people.”
The former leader expressed frustration that the stadium dominated political discourse, insisting Labor never changed its position despite the Greens attempting to include stadium opposition in their amended no-confidence motion.
He said he understood the “frustration” and “nervousness” of Tasmanians over a potential stadium backflip from Labor, but said he “wasn’t panicking” because he knew the party would “stick true”.
“None of us wanted to see the end of the devils. That’s why we continued to take the position we did.”
“We accept the reality that you need a stadium to get a team. It’s not made up. It is a reality.”
“For them [the Greens] to go around and say … yes team, no stadium … it is an abject lie, and yet they’re happy to say it.”
Despite the leadership change, Winter indicated his successor Willie shares similar views on the stadium project. He said he would now focus on supporting Willie and representing his Franklin electorate.
The stadium project now awaits assessment under the Project of State Significance process.
