Premier Jeremy Rockliff says he is feeling “apprehensive and nervous” about the fate of the Macquarie Point stadium as the Legislative Council prepares to vote on the contentious project this week.
Speaking to media outside Parliament House on Tuesday, Rockliff said his confidence had ebbed and flowed throughout the three-year debate.
“I don’t want to say either way, but I feel as though we have done all we possibly can to get to this point and to provide the Legislative Council with all the information that they need,” he said.
The Legislative Council will scrutinise the project order later this week.
Rockliff pointed to Sunday’s pro-stadium rally – which drew an estimated 15,000 people to the Parliament House lawns – as a sign of community support.
He acknowledged that some upper house members had already suggested they would vote against the project but argued the scrutiny had ultimately strengthened it.
“Some have already nailed their colours to the mask, to the negative,” he said.
“All I ask for is that people consider the 15,000 people here on Sunday and the many, many other thousands of Tasmanians that want to take this project forward.”
“Everyone that has scrutinised this project, opposed this project for various reasons, come up with ideas around how to make this project better, it has made it a better project at the end of the day.”
The Premier described his meetings with upper house members on Monday as “courteous … constructive and … respectful”.
“The upper house will do what the upper house does … they will go through and scrutinise the order and that’s up to them,” Rockliff said.
“This can be a very unifying project and my view is should this project proceed it will unify Tasmania because it’s been through a lot of scrutiny over the course of the last three years.”
“And so I look forward to the outcome of the Legislative Council and I want to thank the upper house members that have got a lot of work to do.”
“It’s been, I know, a very testing time for individual members as they weigh up all the information and make up their minds on behalf of the people of Tasmania this week.”
