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The Tasmanian Planning Commission has advised against building a stadium at Hobart’s Macquarie Point in a major blow to the Tasmania Devils’ bid to join the AFL.
The panel used blunt language in delivering its recommendation in a report released on Wednesday.
“The panel recommends that the project should not proceed … the panel has concluded that the benefits are outweighed by the disbenefits.”
A render of the proposed stadium.
The panel wrote that “the cost benefit analysis shows that the construction and operation of the stadium results in a substantial net social cost to the Tasmanian community”.
The AFL has not budged on its position that the stadium is essential to the Devils’ AFL and AFLW teams being admitted to the competition in 2028; the granting of the AFL licence is conditional on the stadium’s approval.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he would continue to fight for the stadium. He said the report “massively underestimates the social and economic benefits the stadium, a new AFL team and a supercharged events industry will have on Tasmania”.
Tasmanian Liberal leader Jeremy Rockliff has responded to the planning commission’s report.Credit: AAP
Under political pressure, the government had declared the stadium a project of state significance before attempting to replace that process with enabling legislation, a decision that was halted when an election was called after a vote of no confidence in Rockliff was held in parliament.
Rockliff responded to the report’s release by announcing that parliament would proceed with developing legislation to ensure the stadium was built, with the parliament to have the final say. “As a growing state we simply cannot afford not to, this is so much bigger than politics. This is our future on the line,” Rockliff said.
The panel’s report was a devastating critique of arguments in favour of the stadium. Point after point, the report rejected the build, saying:
- There will be an ever-increasing debt associated with the stadium because of the compound interest effect, unless taxes are increased, or spending on public services reduced, or other planned state capital projects abandoned, to pay for it.
- It will irrevocably change, for the worse in the opinion of the panel, the way in which the landscape and urban pattern is appreciated and understood.
- The size, shape and location of the site is ill-suited to a building like the stadium – a singular, large, bulky monolith which will overwhelm those surrounding buildings and the setting. In addition, the nature of the stadium design and what is necessary for the project, and the physical constraints of the site, are such that it is unlikely that there will be scope for general activation of those areas of the site which are not consumed by the stadium.
- It will also adversely affect the general character of Sullivans Cove as a whole, and the experience of it. The panel does not consider that the stadium building will be iconic, as claimed by the proponent.
In conclusion, the commission wrote:
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“The fundamental problem is the size, location and geographical features of the site, in its highly valued context, do not support the disproportionately large, monolithic building proposed.
“It is a building which is incongruent with the valued characteristics of its spatial context, completely at odds with the long-established planning principles guiding and informing development, and with the land and urban fabric surrounding the site and the heritage values associated with nearby places.
“Proceeding with the project will give rise to irrevocable and unacceptable adverse impacts on Hobart’s spatial and landscape character, urban form and historic cultural heritage.”
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