Tasmania’s Labor leader has welcomed the release of concept plans for Hobart’s proposed Macquarie Point stadium but says he wants to see more local workers on the project.
After taking over from Rebecca White following a state election loss, Winter shifted the party’s support for the stadium.
On Monday, he said the stadium is “not just about a football team” but also about the construction and economic activity it will bring to the state.
“Unfortunately over the last 12 months 5,000 jobs have been lost from our economy,” he said.
“We are seeing an economic slowdown and projects like this one are great for the economy. They do allow for Tasmanian construction workers to move from existing projects to the next one and it’s really important for infrastructure pipelines that we have a very clear idea of what’s next.”
“In Tasmania at the moment we’ve got two very large projects set to conclude next year, the Bridgewater Bridge and also UTAS’s forestry development in the city.”
Winter believes a local procurement plan should be put in place to ensure Tasmanian companies have every opportunity to work on the project.
“They might not be the lead contractor, but certainly in subcontracting and contracting roles, making sure that local workers are given first opportunity to work on this site,” he said.
“There’s so much enthusiasm about an AFL team, I think it would be great to see as many Tasmanian workers on this project as possible … as close to 100% as possible.”
“Unfortunately we’ve seen examples in the recent past, particularly with the Royal Hobart Hospital development, where we saw hundreds of workers coming into the state, not Tasmanians and also with the Bridgewater Bridge at the moment.”
“This project’s really important to Tasmania’s economy and so I’m not looking to play politics with this and I’m not looking to be negative for the sake of being negative.”
Sport and Events Minister Nic Street said he has not yet considered implementing a firm local jobs plan but stressed that the state government “want as much local labour and local product used in the construction of this stadium as possible”.
“We know the number of businesses that are going to benefit from this project, both in terms of building the stadium, but also businesses in the CBD that are going to service the workers that are needed to build this project as well,” he said.
“We want local content, we want local labor and I can assure you that the government will be doing everything it can to make sure that that’s as high a proportion as possible.”