Bec Thomas says she is still on the fence about the Macquarie Point stadium just weeks out from a crucial upper house vote, after the project cleared the House of Assembly last night.
The Elwick MLC is one of only a few Legislative Council members whose vote will decide whether the $1.13 billion Hobart waterfront development goes ahead when it reaches the upper house in December.
“I remain open-minded … with all my heart, I want to support this project,” she told Local Radio on Friday morning.
“Tasmania deserves to have the infrastructure that other states have.”
“Tasmania deserves to have an AFL team and for too long has been excluded from what has not been a truly national competition.”
But Thomas said the government still hasn’t answered several questions she submitted days ago about costs and budget allocation. “I’ve not yet been given answers,” she said.
She has asked for those responses before the next sitting day so she can make an informed decision.
The House of Assembly approved the stadium order with 25 votes in favour – the Liberals, Labor, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Carlo Di Falco and independent David O’Byrne.
Nine MPs opposed it, including the Greens and independents Kristie Johnston, Peter George, Craig Garland and George Razay.
Thomas’s biggest concern is the impact on community sports infrastructure, pointing to a projected 72% drop in sport and recreation funding over the forward estimates as outlined in the most recent budget.
“Fundamentally, the government has a responsibility to fund participation and infrastructure for grassroots sport,” she said.
“How can I, in all good conscience, say to my community I’m supporting a stadium – I’m supporting government investing over $100 million in a high-performance training centre – when there aren’t enough courts for kids to play basketball and other indoor sports on?”
“We don’t have one single indoor community basketball court in Hobart, as Tasmania’s capital city.”
Basketball Tasmania’s facility strategy identifies a shortage of 16 courts across greater Hobart.
Thomas said while the government had invested heavily in the north, building 18 new courts in Mowbray, the south had been left behind.
“I can’t in all good conscience let Hobart become a place where you can watch sport, but you can’t play it,” she said.
The former Glenorchy mayor said the community was clearly split.
“It’s such a shame that this issue of a stadium has divided Tasmanians,” she said.
“Having an AFL team is something that we should be united on and should be celebrating.”
At sporting clubs and pubs, Thomas said people encourage her to back the project.
But in local shopping centres and her electorate office, she hears from people waiting years for surgery and struggling with housing.
“I’m going to upset people whichever way I go, so I have to really have to make this decision on what I truly believe based on all the information I can have on what is in the best interest of Tasmania,” she said.
The AFL has made it clear that rejecting the stadium would mean Tasmania misses out on a team.
Thomas acknowledged that “risk” but said the Legislative Council was being asked to act as a planning authority on an infrastructure project, not vote directly on whether Tasmania gets a team.
“That will be a decision and a discussion that will have to take place, I imagine, between the premier, the government and the AFL,” she said.
The government needs at least eight votes from the 15-member upper house. It has six locked in from Liberal and Labor members.
Four MLCs have already declared their opposition, leaving five independents holding the balance of power: Dean Harriss, Casey Hiscutt, Ruth Forrest, Tania Rattray and Bec Thomas.
The project needs the support of at least three of them to proceed.
If the vote is tied, council president Craig Farrell would cast the deciding vote. Convention dictates he would vote against, sinking the stadium.
Thomas said she hopes to declare her position before the December vote, once the government has provided the information she has requested.
“The onus is on the government to answer my questions and once I have the information that I need, I hope to be in a position where I can be clear with the community about where my position lies,” she said.
