Labor MP and shadow treasurer Dean Winter has called for the MyState Bank Arena lease to be fixed or torn up after a change to the deal allowed the state to pay billionaire Larry Kestelman’s company up to $175,000 a year.
The lease sets a base rent of $200,000 a year, but the state pays up to $175,000 a year back to the operator to support community access to the venue.
Winter said the “outrageous” change amounted to an almost “$10 million gift to one of Australia’s richest people” over the 49-year lease.
“It’s dodgy in terms of not being transparent,” he said. “Tasmanians have a right to know what happens with our taxpayer dollars.”
Parliament was told the lease would return $200,000 a year to taxpayers, but an amending deed signed six months later added the community access payments.
Winter said the lease had “already been amended at least twice” and if it could not be amended, “it should be torn up”.
Winter said Tasmanians had paid $66 million to upgrade the arena, $8 million to buy it and $20 million for a high-performance centre.
“Jeremy Rockliff and the Liberals need to explain why this happened and why they didn’t announce it,” he said.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee found last week taxpayers get a net return of less than $30,000 a year from the lease and recommended it be reviewed as soon as practicable.
The committee also found no percentage rent had been paid since the lease began.
Sport Minister Nick Duigan on Monday did not address the amending deed or the community access payments directly, but said the arena, formerly the Derwent Entertainment Centre, had cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year before its redevelopment.
“We leant into it, we invested in it and we’ve created something really special,” he said.
“It’s no longer costing the people of Tasmania to hold that asset.”
Asked whether the government would review the lease as the committee recommended, Duigan said there was an agreement in place.
“We’ll stand by our agreement,” he said.
He said the lease was publicly available and “all of the facts are out there for people to scrutinise as they wish”.
“The Wiggles will fill the house later this year. Delta Goodrem will fill the house next year,” he said. “This has been a good outcome for Tasmania.”
