Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The budget confirmed what many Tasmanians feared: that the federal government has fallen for the Tasmanian government's scandalous con job and will indeed go ahead and fund a third AFL stadium in the state. Among other things, it makes a complete mockery of everything the federal government has said about doing things differently and is a slap in the face for the many Tasmanians doing it tough right now, like those waiting years to see a specialist and years more for surgery, and the 4½ thousand people languishing on the housing waiting list.

Sure, like many Tasmanians, I'm delighted by the news that Tasmania will finally get an AFL team, but the AFL's condition that we must build another stadium first is, quite frankly, extortion befitting a top Melbourne mobster.

No wonder I'll proudly stand alongside my community at a rally this Saturday opposing the stadium, where the community will well know that Tasmania does not need, does not want and cannot afford this stadium. In any case, Macquarie Point is simply too special a place for a development which will look at best like a monument to stupidity and at worst like a giant bedpan. In other words, the stadium is a tribute to political arrogance and will stand forever loudly condemned.

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