Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Transparency spokesperson
More than a month after the Rockliff Government was plunged into minority, the Tasmanian people have finally been given a small glimpse of what advice the Liberals relied on in deciding to build a billion-dollar stadium in Hobart.
After a week of lost votes on the floor of Parliament, the Premier has been forced into the bare minimum of transparency, tabling a list detailing the documents he’s refused to release due to claimed Cabinet confidentiality.
One look at this list shows why Jeremy Rockliff had been so resistant to being open with Tasmanians. The list reveals just how irresponsible the decision to build the stadium really was.
This will be Tasmania’s most expensive infrastructure project ever. It requires hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, and the Tasmanian people will be saddled with the inevitable cost of any budget blowouts.
Despite this, if we take Jeremy Rockliff’s word, we now know the government got no advice from the Department of Treasury and Finance on this huge decision.
There is no justification for failing to ask for an assessment or advice on the stadium’s potential impact on the State’s finances. We’re talking about huge sums of public funds and a massive increase to the state’s debt – but apparently the Liberals thought the expertise of our Treasury officials wasn’t needed.
Given this reckless approach, it’s no wonder Treasury identified the stadium debt as a key risk to this year’s State Budget.