Tasmanian Labor have made a major backflip and confirmed they will back the proposed multi-purpose stadium at Hobart’s Macquarie Point.
New leader Dean Winter made the surprise announcement on Monday during a press conference, saying the party have changed their tune for the sake of jobs.
“Tasmania’s economy has slowed. 5,000 jobs have been lost since Jeremy Rockliff lost majority government,” he said.
“Building companies are going bust. There are no major infrastructure projects scheduled to come online once the Bridgewater Bridge is finished.”
“A stadium will mean thousands of jobs in construction, including hundreds of apprenticeships. That’s why Labor will be backing a new stadium.”
Winter said this party’s support “doesn’t mean the Premier will be let off the hook” for the promises he has made, but will instead be forced to stick to his promised capped spend of $375 million.
“While we will not be standing in the way of the current Macquarie Point stadium proposal, we still hold concerns around the deliverability of the project,” he said.
“The Premier should not rule out the Stadium 2.0 project.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said: “Great to see Labor is finally on board on Mac Point.”
“Looking forward to working together to get this done,” he said.
Former Labor leader Rebecca White went into the recent state election saying she would ‘renegotiate’ the stadium deal with the AFL if the party were to win the election.
The stadium is a condition of Tasmania’s AFL licence, which was handed to the state one year ago last week.
