Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff says Labor must withdraw its support for the Macquarie Point stadium project, arguing the state cannot afford it as the budget crisis deepens.
Woodruff said the stadium was a key sticking point in failed talks with Labor leader Dean Winter on Tuesday, alongside disagreements over environmental policy, logging and salmon farming.
“We must be doing everything we can to stop the stadium being built,” she said following the meeting.
“It’s really obvious for Labor, they can walk away from the stadium. They should walk away from the stadium.”
Woodruff said Treasury advice presented to them showed the fiscal outlook had worsened since the election campaign, making the project financially unviable.
“Things are different now, even than they were during the election campaign. The fiscal circumstances have got worse and it’s so clear that the stadium is something Tasmanians can’t afford,” she said.
She described the Greens’ position as offering Labor “a reality check” on the project, saying any serious commitment to budget repair must include scrapping the stadium.
The Greens leader indicated the stadium was one of several non-negotiable issues for Winter, who needs Green support to first pass a motion of no confidence in the Liberals and form government.
Woodruff said there would be no support from the Greens if his position remained unchanged when parliament returns next Tuesday.
“We want something up front. We’re not prepared to support a minority government that hasn’t provided us with a genuine statement of intent to compromise on issues that people have voted in the Greens to get outcomes on,” she said.
“We proposed a range of things that we could discuss and Dean Winter refused to talk about any of them. So it’s hard to see there’s any prospect for change at this point.”
The stadium currently has the backing of the Liberals, Labor and independent David O’Byrne in the lower house.
Winter, speaking shortly after Woodruff on Tuesday, said the Greens had a choice between the same Liberal government or a new Labor government.
“We want to work with the crossbench to find compromise where we can,” he said.
“What I’ve said is we’re not going to compromise on our values or beliefs and I’m not asking them to either.”
It comes as AFL boss Andrew Dillon on Tuesday confirmed the Tasmania Devils football team still hinges on the new stadium being built at Macquarie Point.
“From there [the return to parliament next Tuesday], we’ll get more of an understanding as to the timing for the planning process and then the building of the stadium,” Dillon said.
“Once the parliament gets commissioned, we have an agreement with the Tasmanian government, whoever that is of the day, to build the stadium, to fund the team.”
“We’re still all set … as I stand here now, there’s nothing that dissuades me from the 2028 start date.”
He said Tasmania’s provisional AFL licence could be granted by the end of 2025 “with a bit of luck”.
