The fate of Hobart’s Macquarie Point stadium and Tasmania’s long-awaited AFL team could be determined by today’s Legislative Council elections, with just three key electorates in play that could make or break the project.
Around 75,000 Tasmanians are heading to the polls in the electorates of Montgomery, Nelson and Pembroke. The outcome will be critical to whether the stadium gets the green light.
While the stadium has bipartisan backing in the lower house, it faces a much tighter contest in the upper house, where independents and the Greens hold the balance of power.
Tasmania Devils CEO Brendon Gale delivered a stark warning on Friday, saying there would be serious consequences if the stadium bill fails when it comes before parliament next month.
“We’ll be out of a job,” Gale told a football breakfast in Melbourne yesterday.
“There’s a view down there that we’ll have an opportunity to renegotiate. And I guess our response to that is I wouldn’t be running that risk.”
Gale described the stadium as “the most scrutinised project in the state’s history”.
“The AFL has its own politics and its own constituents. And as we’ve all come to appreciate over the years, clubs have little power,” Gale said.
The Devils’ AFL licence is conditional on the roofed stadium being built at Macquarie Point.
In the electorate of Nelson, which covers suburbs including Sandy Bay, Taroona and Kingston, incumbent independent Meg Webb is facing a strong challenge from pro-stadium Liberal candidate Marcus Vermey.
Webb, a vocal opponent of the stadium, first won her seat in 2019 on a platform of government transparency.
She said she will continue using her independent status if re-elected to establish parliamentary inquiries and scrutinise government policy and spending.
In Pembroke, Labor’s Luke Edmunds is hoping to hold onto his seat. He supports the stadium, while challenger independent Allison Ritchie has stayed on the fence.
Ritchie says any stadium proposal must be fit for purpose and financially viable, having not made a commitment to either side of the debate.
Even in Montgomery, the furthest of the three electorates from Hobart, the stadium remains a hot topic.
Liberal candidate and former federal senator Stephen Parry supports the stadium, as does independent Casey Hiscutt. They are up against three other candidates who oppose it.
The Devils are expected to ramp up their lobbying efforts in the weeks ahead, with Gale making it clear: “Our existence depends on it.”
