The economist tasked with reviewing Hobart’s controversial Macquarie Point stadium proposal met with anti-stadium activists before his formal appointment, it has been revealed.
The ABC has reported Dr Nicholas Gruen met with members of the anti-stadium Our Place group on April 16 last year, facilitated by the Jacqui Lambie Network on the same day they communicated to the government they wanted Gruen to conduct the independent review.
Dr Gruen told the ABC that a senior JLN adviser, Anna Bateman, introduced him to vocal anti-stadium campaigners Roland Browne and Richard Flanagan.
“Anna Bateman from Jacqui Lambie’s office suggested that I speak to Mr Browne and Mr Flanagan to familiarise myself with the issues, and I saw nothing untoward in doing so,” Dr Gruen said.
These meetings were not initially disclosed in his final report, which he submitted to government on January 1.
Dr Gruen blamed the omissions on an administrative oversight, saying his executive assistant had constructed the stakeholder consultation list from meetings she had arranged.
“Some time after submitting my review, we noticed some typos and decided to have it proofread again. In this context, I noticed some omissions from the list of stakeholder consultations,” he told the public broadcaster.
In a statement to Pulse, the government expressed serious concern about the non-disclosure.
“The non-disclosure of any such meetings, both at the time of the nomination and in the final report, is of serious concern to the government,” a state government spokesperson said.
“The government would have expected that any update to Dr Gruen’s stakeholder consultation meetings list made following the public release of the report, had been communicated to the government.”
“If the government had been aware Dr Gruen had held meetings with any stakeholder groups prior to it accepting his nomination, it would have seriously considered requesting an alternative candidate to conduct the independent review.”
Our Place member Roland Browne defended the meeting as “entirely appropriate”, telling the ABC that Gruen simply asked “about community opposition to the stadium”.
