The Examiner's sports reporters Josh Partridge and Ben Hann discuss an historic week in Tasmanian politics and its effect on the Tasmania Football Club.
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00:00Welcome one and all to an episode of the Press Box episode 90. My name is Ben
00:11Handger and alongside me once again is Josh Partridge. We have sick Ryan Bentley today so
00:16he won't be with us but we still have a very busy show for you guys today. It's going to work a
00:21little bit differently to your regular scheduled programming. Obviously it's been a pretty
00:28monumental week in Tasmanian politics and as a result sport Josh they say the two should ever mix.
00:37They're definitely mixing here in Tasmania at the moment. That is to put it lightly I'd say. To be
00:44honest yeah if you've been living under the largest of rocks we can give you a quick rundown on what's
00:51been going on. So on Tuesday night it was sort of leaked that the Labor Leader, Opposition Leader,
00:59Dean Winter was intending to table a non-confidence motion should he have the backing of enough
01:06people in the party. Turns out it was an 18-17 vote so just enough to get it over the line against
01:13Jeremy Rockliffe the Premier of course and that sort of set in motion some justified maybe some over
01:21the top chaos regarding the future of Tasmania's Macquarie Point Stadium proposal and therefore
01:29the Tasmania Devils. Josh take us through I suppose the initial reaction from the club.
01:35Yeah I think the first thing that really happened on Wednesday was it was a press conference it was
01:39already scheduled and that's the really interesting thing about this it was already scheduled for
01:43a completely different topic outside of the political debate. Kath McCann the Devils General
01:49Manager of Marketing kind of fronted the the press and she couldn't hold it in. She was reduced to
01:55tears over the the future of what the Devils and therefore Tasmania's future generation looked like
02:02and yeah it was it was tough and there's there's been some pretty poor commentary over that to be
02:08honest and some people have said that like a woman shouldn't be doing that job it's too hard and
02:13all things like that it's kind of brought out the worst in people as as these kind of things do but
02:19and then that kind of ticked along Brendan Gale was then on AFL 360 on Fox footy on Wednesday night and
02:25then he was talking about how how hard it is to explain to people why these why these stadiums can't be
02:32why the Utah stadium and Bell River Oval all that kind of thing can't be functioned um and he kind of
02:37admitted there's no good time to build a stadium and he talked about how the two teams that we've got
02:42now regional stadiums fit for purpose and they're not going to work in terms of uh financing a business
02:49so uh that was the really important thing that he wanted to get across and and he said look it's really
02:54hard to explain in seven and ten seven or ten seconds i'm not going to try and do it uh so if
02:59if you want to uh please please go and read the devil's uh stadium fact sheet on their website it's
03:04really good i found it in the last 10 minutes before preparing for this and it's got all the
03:09questions that everyone's been asking to be honest so um and then from there onwards it went um
03:15Thursday morning it just all kept rolling on um uh Thursday afternoon sorry when the
03:20no confidence motion went through as you said 18 to 17. the devils released a statement um they're
03:25just just basically saying that they're going to continue working with uh the people that they
03:29need to work with and uh that despite not having played a game um there it's a club steeped in
03:34tradition all that kind of thing so uh that was a very brief look at the the 48 hours there that
03:40issued yeah and yeah wasn't it a chaotic uh sort of moment for us for everyone really and that's
03:46without mentioning the rewaltz getting involved as well jack was involved in as a part of the press
03:51conference then uh after on thursday night footy nick had a fair crack at dean winter which then
03:57brought dean winter back into things on friday as well so there was so much to yeah to look at
04:02if you don't know the name dean winter before you certainly know it now uh it's been yeah as you
04:07say there's a lot of facets to this i want to back up your statement that um yeah there's been
04:12some really poor commentary as you say about about this whole thing i think you know we've had um in
04:19our own website comments you know ranging from crocodile tears stuff like that i think uh whatever
04:24your position on this thing it does never needs to get personal um and so and if anyone knew kath the
04:31way that we are fortunate enough to know her then i know they wouldn't be saying the same thing so
04:35um enough of that and and in terms of that um uh fact sheet on the website once again really really
04:42uh implore people to go and look at that and just read it for yourself and get get the facts
04:46straight we'll go on to misconceptions a bit later about this whole debate uh but as you say dean winter
04:52um getting attacked from from the uh the saint kilda legend nick rewalt and you know didn't back down
04:59and sort of you know mention the fact that nick doesn't live here anymore and all sorts of stuff look
05:03winter has become something of a divisive character with this um effort um we'll have our opinions on
05:09it in a little bit but i just wanted to mention a letter he um sent through to indrew dylan following
05:15the no confidence motion being tabled and being successful he wanted to reaffirm the labor party's
05:22commitment to um the stadium at macquarie point the afl license the timelines and the tasmania football club
05:29um as to how he can uh reassure i suppose the the public and and and then to dylan that that is
05:37the case is probably another question but um that letter was followed up on monday by 21 co-signatories
05:47who undersigned the letter uh effectively being an anti-stadium letter saying that this is an
05:52unreasonable request for tasmania to have as part of their license agreement and that you know please
06:00come back to the renegotiating table an upcoming election hasn't been called yet but i think i
06:04think we can all expect it to be in the coming days um you know they're saying this is the perfect time to
06:10come back to the negotiating table and let's find a solution that works our own opinion now that we've
06:17sort of laid out everything that's there um you know i don't want to i don't want to come across
06:22as someone who you know is is all knowing on the matter i'm certainly not i think i've learned plenty
06:27in the last week as much as anyone else but i do find the uh decision to call the election at this
06:35moment for for someone who purports to be a pro stadium pro afl team um leader that this sort of flies
06:45doesn't have faced this decision in terms of the timing of it if you had waited maybe until after
06:49the stadium vote i think you the support behind labor following the federal election would have
06:54still been there um and i think it's um you know if you are pro stadium pro football team unnecessarily
07:01put all that in jeopardy um look the that that letter that reassures you know i think as i said i'm
07:08not a political commentator you know every chance if he does get elected that it is with a minority
07:13government and you'll have to make some deals with greens and um independent uh members and you
07:20know they are for the vast majority all um against the stadium anti-stadium and i know he's publicly
07:26said he won't do a deal with liberal party either so it's it's tricky to see a clean clear road for
07:33this stadium um and and yeah it's it's thrown a whole bunch of sparrow in the works i suppose how have
07:39you seen the last week or so josh well it's just it's i'll actually take you back a bit further i
07:45think this was first brought up in 2019 like this was first mentioned in the task force report in 2019
07:53six years later we're still blabbing on about it nothing's even happened like it's it's mind-boggling
07:59that it uh there's this interesting thing that if you're not if you haven't developed over the course of
08:0560 years like you'd want to be a different person than you were in 2019 i know i certainly am probably
08:1020 kilos heavier and all that kind of jazz but you're if you haven't developed over those 20 over
08:15those six years what are you doing with like some people's opinions just haven't moved at all in
08:21those six years and i think we just need to get our head out of the sand and that without this afl
08:27stadium this wouldn't have even been a reality and to be honest when it first came in i was like oh why
08:32can't we use launceston why can't we use hope well not hobart but um it was it we just need to build
08:38it it's it's almost as simple as that yeah that's um it's one it's exactly if you want to build a
08:45stadium just build it there's never a good time to build a stadium as brenningale correctly mentioned
08:49there's um you know my personal position is i i've never seen the roof as something that should
08:55should need to be a part of it i think a stadium without a roof a new stadium is is probably a good
09:00thing a roof i think probably makes it a lot more expensive and you know curtails cricket's involvement
09:07and i think that reduces the cost benefit ratio um so i think there's a lot of um middle ground that
09:13can be played here but we want to go quickly through the misconceptions of this whole debate whether
09:19you're pro the afl team pro the stadium pro the uh you know or against it um any of this stuff
09:25uh there's just been a lot of things we've noticed being said from the public uh from you know all
09:31sorts of sources um that we just need to we feel like correct because um i think it's just missing
09:38the the point and making it a whole lot more convoluted than it needs to be we'll start off with
09:45the uh something that we've been told um more times than we can count uh why don't we just go back
09:51and renegotiate with the afl and as we're sort of hearing at the moment the fact is it is something
09:58that has been the case now for three years and um if if something changes we'll obviously correct
10:04course but the afl has never shown any willingness or any um indication that they are willing to
10:11renegotiate on this deal this this contract agreement it is what it is the state government
10:18either accepts it or doesn't and that's and that's where we sit so um there is no um as far as we
10:25understand it changing the the license agreement yeah correct and um something that we both find
10:34very passionately when we when we hear this is that the money can't you know can you better spend
10:39elsewhere do you want to maybe go on a bit about why that's so wrong oh it's just it's just a hard one
10:43like i think the billion dollars is going to be spent in sport anyway that that's that's my my view
10:49of it that's my taking of it i think we may as well be spending it on this stadium like i know that's
10:54that sounds horrendous but you may as well spend on a stadium otherwise it's going to be spent it's
10:58just going to be spent anyway like it's not this billion dollars it's put aside for sport in budget
11:04it's not going to go to health yeah yeah so to put it clearly this money that the federal government
11:09has given a given tasmania um and the money that's you know being put aside for this stadium
11:15it can't go to education it can't go to health it can't be re-budgeted and put elsewhere the the the
11:22the way it works is the federal government give us or give the state this money for the stadium or not
11:28at all it is not a give you the money and you can spend it how you like it is the money for the stadium
11:34or no money at all so it's a really um flawed argument to say that you know we've got homeless
11:40people yes there these are issues that need to be addressed we're not saying that these aren't
11:43issues that need to be addressed of course they do but you cannot say that this money can be better
11:49spent elsewhere beyond the uh yeah as you say the reach of sport it is part of that budget um
11:57um the next one is uh that we hear often that uh launceston should just be you know utah stadium
12:06the redevelopment's going there so why don't why aren't the devils just based there or bel reef um
12:11you know this episode would go too long if we talk about the flaws with bel reef um as a footy uh ground
12:17but you know i suppose josh tell me why launceston can't be a permanent major home of of the tasmanian
12:24devils i mean well to start with the only reason that's getting the upgrades is contingent on the
12:28stadium in the first place as well and contingent on the afl bid um so um but i mean the reality of
12:35the situation is it's just over there like it's it's smack bang in the middle of a city there's no
12:40it's the same as bel reef there's no ample parking there's all of that kind of thing and plus
12:44it's in launceston like that i think that's unfortunately the the main thing about it
12:49this team needs to be based in the capital city i mean uh as an 18 year old kid coming over to
12:56lonnie yeah it's it's not gonna they're not gonna want to come to launceston they they need to live
13:02in hobart and that's that's always been the argument it's always been the fact of the matter is the
13:07stadium needs to be in hobart that's it exactly right it would cause all sorts of future issues
13:12the the last one is also the second last one is that um there's a common position that is yes team
13:21no stadium um i i get the that that you know feeling and i get why and and see the logic why
13:29people are of that disposition but it is not a feasible disposition so you cannot be yes team no
13:36stadium because the way the licenses goes back to the top like the way the license works is if you are
13:41for the team you are therefore for the stadium because they come together it's a package
13:47or if you're if you're so physically insane fine like there's no issue with that that also means you
13:52cannot be for the team or or you've got to understand at least that no stadium means no team so there's
13:59i think probably uh maybe politicians have used that as a way of not uh getting offside too many of
14:07their of the public between their constituents say i don't know i'm for the team full well knowing that
14:12one cannot happen without the other yeah i think there's a reason there's been so many uh tasmanian
14:17afl bids over the over the course of history there's a reason this bid has got to where it is and it's
14:22the um unfortunately to some people it's the stadium it's as simple as that that's it uh and then finally
14:29um the i think there's probably a fair population who are pro the afl team and therefore pro the
14:37stadium that probably um haven't been very vocal because there has been a general feeling that this
14:43is going to happen it's while a very bumpy rocky road it's sort of gone along and you go well it's
14:48all going to happen eventually there's the stadium vote coming up in the upper house in july but
14:54it does feel like right now it is at a crossroads and it is as close as it's ever been to not
15:00happening um this afl team uh so you know we've seen a bunch of you know petitions and and and all
15:07the rest and often you see that the no side is a lot more vocal i think because they feel like they
15:13have to fight for it a lot more so if you are pro team pro stadium or if you're against the team and
15:19against stadium um this upcoming election will probably end up as a referendum and if you are
15:27pro team pro stadium you have to be really considerate about how you vote in this upcoming
15:32election because this is not me giving advice or recommending a certain thing but i think you've
15:37got to really do your research because this election will be really important for that matter
15:43um there is plenty of this going on uh this this uh you know we're writing a lot about this where
15:50we're doing a lot of videos as you can see there's pretty much um the main story in town so if you want
15:55to um read up on all of this uh the examiner has got more than his fair share of content going on about
16:02it uh and you too can have a better understanding of what's going on currently in politics and in sport
16:09um just go on our website go on our social media you can see the stories there until next time we'll
16:14catch you for the next one