As the clock ticks down to club presidents voting on whether Tasmania can have its own team in the AFL, finance for a $750 million Hobart stadium for home games isn’t any closer to a resolution.
On a tour of the state, Infrastructure Minister Catherine King isn’t even considering Commonwealth funding until a decision is made.
She has told Tasmania Talks, the state government will be confronted with choices.
“That trillion dollars of debt that we have got to start to repay, whether that stadium is the priority infrastructure project for Tasmania or whether they are going to want funding for the Launceston stadium or whether they are going to want funding for public transport networks or whether they are going to want funding for hospitals or education, so they are going to have to determine whether that is the priority ask.”
That is quite a different message from Premier Jeremy Rockliff.
“Of course health is a priority, but we can have it all in Tasmania, there is no less funding going into health as a result of any AFL licence or indeed infrastructure including our own UTAS stadium of course of which we’ve committed an upgrade, as well, as a state government.”
Club presidents vote at the end of the month.
